Syrian Kurdish fighters said they had fully secured the town of Kobani near the Turkish border yesterday and killed more than 60 Islamic State militants, two days after the hardline group launched an incursion with suicide bombers.
Further east, Islamic State pressed another assault on government-held areas of Hasaka city, clashing with the Syrian army after blowing up a security building late on Friday and triggering a government appeal for residents to take up arms.
“The people of the governorate and its surroundings continue to sign up with the Syrian Arab Army in its fight against terror,” state television said in a news flash yesterday. Hasaka’s governor described the situation as “fine” but also called on residents to defend it in a phone call with state TV.
The twin assaults on Kobani and Hasaka came after Islamic State suffered two weeks of defeats at the hands of Kurdish-led forces, supported by US-led air strikes.
The YPG blew up a school building used by Islamic State in the town earlier yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said, and plumes of smoke could be seen from the Turkish side of the border rising into the air.
The Observatory said a US-led airstrike killed at least 18 Islamic State fighters near Kobani. Islamic State killed around 200 civilians since the assault which started on Thursday, the Observatory said, describing it as one of the worst massacres committed by the group in Syria.
In Syria’s northeast, Kurdish forces and the army fought separate battles with the group around the city overnight. The YPG’s Xelil said the Kurds were not fighting with Islamic State yesterday.
Islamic State launched its offensive on government-held areas of Hasaka on Thursday and the United Nations says the violence is estimated to have displaced up to 120,000 people.
Hasaka province is important because it sits between Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq and reaches north to the Turkish border. The city is divided into areas run separately by President Bashar al-Assad’s government and Kurdish authorities.
Islamic State said in statements posted online yesterday it had attacked areas east of the city and in a video posted on YouTube said it had entered western areas.