The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched twin
assaults Thursday after Kurdish-led forces, supported by U.S.-led
airstrikes, advanced to within 30 miles of Raqqa city, the de facto
capital of ISIL's self-declared “caliphate.“
ISIL fighters have launched attacks on two fronts in northern Syria, re-entering the Kurdish town of Kobane and seizing parts of the city of Hasakah.
In both cases, ISIL has picked targets where it is difficult for the
U.S.-led alliance to provide air support. In Kobane, also known as Ayn
al-Arab, aerial bombardment of residential areas risks civilian
casualties.
Meanwhile the U.S.-led alliance has avoided bombing ISIL targets in
areas controlled by President Bashar al-Assad, such as government-held
Hasaka — one of his last footholds in the northeast.
The United States and its European and Arab allies have been carrying
out airstrikes on ISIL since last year in an effort to roll back the
group, which has seized wide swaths of Syria and Iraq.
The attack on the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane and the nearby
village of Brakh Bootan left at least 120 civilians dead, according to
the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The assault is the single biggest massacre of civilians by ISIL since
it killed hundreds of members of the Sunni Sheitaat tribe in
eastern Syria last year, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The attack involved at least three suicide car bombs, and the dead included the elderly, women and children, Rahman said.
ISIL fighters were reported to number in the low dozens and entered
the town in five cars disguised as members of the Kurdish fighting group
YPG and Syrian rebel groups.
Fighting was ongoing inside the town, Rahman said.
Kobane was the site of one of the biggest battles against ISIL in
2014. The Kurdish forces eventually drove ISIL out in January with the
help of U.S. airstrikes and Iraqi Kurdish fighters after months of
fighting.
ISIL advanced rapidly last month, seizing cities in Syria and Iraq.
But recent Kurdish advances in Syria shifted the momentum once more.
ISIL fighters have often adopted a tactic of attacking elsewhere when
they lose ground.
The armed group wrested control of at least one district of Hasaka
city in its raid there on Thursday. The city is divided into zones run
separately by the Syrian government and the Kurdish administration that
controls the YPG.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said an
estimated 50,000 people had been displaced within Hasaka city while
10,000 had left northward toward Amuda town, close to the Turkish
border.
Speaking to Syrian state TV, the governor of Hasaka said the city was “safe and secure.” He urged people to return home.
But the Observatory said fighting continued in the city. Government
forces were carrying out airstrikes targeting areas south of Hasaka
controlled by ISIL, it added.
Assad has since late March lost areas of northwestern, southern and central Syria to a patchwork of armed groups.
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