IS launches surprise attack on Kobane

In this picture taken Friday, Jan. 30, 2015, a Syrian Kurdish man walks among the rubble in the Syrian city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani. The Islamic State group has acknowledged for the first time that its fighters have been defeated in the Syrian town of Kobani and vowed to attack the town again. (AP Photo)

The Islamic State group launched a two-pronged offensive in northern Syria on Thursday after several setbacks, re-entering the symbolic battleground town of Kobane and seizing parts of the city of Hasakeh.

In southern Syria, an alliance of rebel groups, including al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, also attacked government-held areas of the city of Daraa.

Analysts said the surprise IS assaults were aimed at diverting Kurdish forces after they scored a series of victories and advanced on the jihadists’ Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.

Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes waged a four-month battle to repel IS that had laid a siege on Kobane, securing the town in January.

But on Thursday, the jihadists returned, detonating a suicide car bomb near the border crossing adjacent to Kobane as they launched an assault. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said at least 12 civilians and Kurdish fighters were killed in the car bomb and subsequent fighting in the centre of the town, along with eight IS militants.

A few hours later, two more car bombs detonated near the border, but there were no immediate details on casualties.

Villagers executed

IS forces also entered a Kurdish village some 20 km south of Kobane on Thursday morning, executing at least 23 residents, among them women and children, the Observatory said. The assault on Kobane prompted angry Kurdish accusations that Turkey had allowed the jihadists to enter Syria from its territory, a claim Turkish officials dismissed as “baseless.”

— Reuters