Agencies, Amman :
At least 12 people were killed in a car bomb attack in the Syrian town of Kobane, as dozens of ISIL fighters attacked the town on the border with Turkey, sources told Al Jazeera.
The fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group were wearing Kurdish and Free Syrian Army uniforms, the sources said, as they attacked the battleground town from three sides on Thursday morning.
ISIL fighters took several positions inside the town, while a number of them blew themselves up using explosives belts.
Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El Shamayleh, reporting from Amman, said several ISIL fighters “carried out suicide attacks, decimated themselves and caused a lot of casualties” after entering the city.
“There’s a lot of fighting going on there, that we understand is ongoing,” our correspondent said.
“Dozens of people have been trying to flee.”
The Kurdish group YPG asked civilians to stay home as it sent reinforcements to the town. Kobane explained: What’s so special about it?
The fighting prompted Kurdish activists and Syrian state television to accuse Turkey of allowing ISIL to attack Kobane from its side of the border.
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman later “strongly denied” that the ISIL fighters crossed into Syria from Turkey.
Kurdish forces in January had reclaimed Kobane from ISIL in a victory touted by Anwar Muslim, the prime minister of the self-declared Kurdish canton of Kobane, as “the beginning of the end for Daesh [ISIL]”.
Losing Kobane after more than four months of intense fighting was seen as a significant propaganda blow to ISIL after it had invested extensive military resources to capture the isolated border town.
“Daesh [ISIL] took most of the places it wanted in Syria and Iraq but could not capture Kobane,” Muslim told Al Jazeera at the time.
Meanwhile, ISIL launched an overnight offensive on the largely Kurdish city of Hasakah in northeast Syria, sources told Al Jazeera, and dozens of Syrian and ISIL fighters were reportedly killed.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group estimated that at least 30 Syrian soldiers and 20 ISIL fighters died in the raid.
Dozens of people fled Hasakah towards the northern countryside after the sudden offensive, Al Jazeera’s sources reported.
At least 12 people were killed in a car bomb attack in the Syrian town of Kobane, as dozens of ISIL fighters attacked the town on the border with Turkey, sources told Al Jazeera.
The fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group were wearing Kurdish and Free Syrian Army uniforms, the sources said, as they attacked the battleground town from three sides on Thursday morning.
ISIL fighters took several positions inside the town, while a number of them blew themselves up using explosives belts.
Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El Shamayleh, reporting from Amman, said several ISIL fighters “carried out suicide attacks, decimated themselves and caused a lot of casualties” after entering the city.
“There’s a lot of fighting going on there, that we understand is ongoing,” our correspondent said.
“Dozens of people have been trying to flee.”
The Kurdish group YPG asked civilians to stay home as it sent reinforcements to the town. Kobane explained: What’s so special about it?
The fighting prompted Kurdish activists and Syrian state television to accuse Turkey of allowing ISIL to attack Kobane from its side of the border.
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman later “strongly denied” that the ISIL fighters crossed into Syria from Turkey.
Kurdish forces in January had reclaimed Kobane from ISIL in a victory touted by Anwar Muslim, the prime minister of the self-declared Kurdish canton of Kobane, as “the beginning of the end for Daesh [ISIL]”.
Losing Kobane after more than four months of intense fighting was seen as a significant propaganda blow to ISIL after it had invested extensive military resources to capture the isolated border town.
“Daesh [ISIL] took most of the places it wanted in Syria and Iraq but could not capture Kobane,” Muslim told Al Jazeera at the time.
Meanwhile, ISIL launched an overnight offensive on the largely Kurdish city of Hasakah in northeast Syria, sources told Al Jazeera, and dozens of Syrian and ISIL fighters were reportedly killed.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group estimated that at least 30 Syrian soldiers and 20 ISIL fighters died in the raid.
Dozens of people fled Hasakah towards the northern countryside after the sudden offensive, Al Jazeera’s sources reported.
