IS militants re-enter Kobane

25 giugno 2015

2 min di lettura

(AGI) Rome, July 25 - Islamic State (IS) jihadists, who wererecently forced to retreat from the Syrian frontier town Kobaneunder the pressure of Kurdish militias, have launched acounteroffensive. In a surprise move, they mounted a series ofsimultaneous attacks against the Syrian army and the militiasthemselves. Jihadists led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi managedto take back Kobane and seized control of two districts of thecity of Hasaka previously held by Syrian government forces. The attack on Kobane started early on Thursday morning, whenthe militias raided the village of Bark Butan, outside theSyrian-Kurdish enclave, disguised as People's Protection Units(YPG) and Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters. According MehmetYuksel, a member of the Democratic Party of peoples (HDP), apro-Kurdish political party in Turkey, the jihadists "came withfour or five vehicles carrying FSA flags. They succeeded inevading surveillance at the checkpoints". According to theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights, 23 civilians were killedin their sleep, most of them women and children. At least onecar bomb exploded near the Mursitpinar border crossing betweenKobane and Turkey. Syrian media accuse Turkey of letting theterrorists through, saying that the attack started on theTurkish border at Mursitpinar. The Turkish foreign ministrydenied that any militants had passed through Turkish territory,declaring that 63 wounded people had been brought to Turkeyafter the attack where they received care and assistance. During the night, the extremists also launched an attack ondistricts controlled by the Syrian government regime in thecity of Hasaka, in the northeast of the country. There wereseveral clashes and planes bombed positions held by theextremists. ISIS detonated a car packed with explosives near acheckpoint at the western entrance of the city, which isdivided into zones controlled by the Syrian government, about40 percent, and the remaining areas under Kurdishadministration. . .