Extremists of the Islamic State attacked the Syrian city of Kobane from Turkey early this morning, which is the first such attack in the months-long siege of the city on the border of the two countries.
The spokesman of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, Naval Halil, said that IS extremists in Turkey attacked the border crossing that connects that country with Kobane, reported AP.
Khalil and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, confirmed that the Islamist offensive began with a suicide bombing involving an armored vehicle at a border crossing. A second suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest later detonated it in the same area, the Observatory said. Clashes, according to activists, then flared up throughout the city, and another car bomb was detonated in the south, Reuters reported. At least 30 fighters on both sides have been killed so far, including 21 members of the IS and nine members of the Kurdish forces, said the director of the Syrian Observatory, Rami Abdul Rahman. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mualem said today that two months of airstrikes by coalition forces in Syria have not weakened IS, and that the only way to fight against extremists is to force Turkey to strengthen border controls in order to prevent foreign fighters from entering Syria. "All indicators indicate that (IS) today, after two months of coalition airstrikes, is not weaker," Mualem told the Libyan TV station "Al-Mayadin". Ankara has repeatedly denied supporting extremist Islamist groups, inadvertently or otherwise, to help Syrian rebels oust President Bashar al-Assad, the BBC reported. US-led coalition forces have carried out nearly 300 airstrikes on extremist positions in Syria since September. The Syrian government, meanwhile, has stepped up its offensive against the extremists, carrying out more than 2.000 airstrikes in less than six weeks. Many of them were aimed at Raqqa, a city in northeastern Syria that the jihadists have declared their capital. According to the Syrian Observatory, more than 500 people were killed in airstrikes by Syrian forces, many of them civilians.
Bonus video:
