IS jihadists ‘seize parts of key Syrian town’

Islamic State jihadists pushed into the key Syrian town of Kobane on the Turkish border Monday, seizing three districts in the city’s east after fierce street fighting with its Kurdish defenders.

Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, has become a strategic battleground between the IS group and its opponents, who include the United States and its Western and Arab allies.

Taking Kobane would give the IS organisation control of a long stretch of the Syria-Turkey border.

The jihadists launched their latest assault on Kobane after a three-week siege with a wave of suicide bomb attacks, Mustefa Ebdi, a Kurdish activist from the town, said on his Facebook page.

After penetrating the city, they waged street battles against Kurdish defenders, sending hundreds of civilians fleeing towards the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“They have taken the industrial zone, Maqtala al-Jadida and Kani Arabane in eastern Kobane after violent combat with Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters” who had far fewer men and arms, said the Observatory.

Kurdish fighters meanwhile ordered all civilians to evacuate Kobane, Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for Kurds in the city, told AFP, adding that some 2,000 people had left the city.

The IS advances came after an AFP photographer saw two black flags of the jihadist group flying on Kobane’s eastern side.

In a sign of mounting desperation, a Kurdish female fighter blew herself up at an IS position east of Kobane on Sunday, the Observatory said.

It was the first reported instance of a female Kurdish fighter employing a tactic often used by the jihadists, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside war-ravaged Syria for its reports.

The bomber, in her 20s, was a full-time YPG fighter identified as Dilar Gencxemis, alias Arin Mirkan, from Kurdish-controlled Afrin in northwestern Syria.

“She killed dozens of gang members and demonstrated the YPG fighters’ determined resistance,” her group said.

On another front, twin IS suicide truck bombings killed at least 30 YPG fighters and security officers on Monday in the Kurdish town of Hasakeh, northeast Syria, the Observatory said.

The jihadists had sparked further outrage at the weekend with the release of a video showing the beheading of Briton Alan Henning.

The video — the latest in a series of on-camera beheadings of Western hostages — also included a threat to another hostage, US aid worker Peter Kassig.

His parents have issued a video plea for their son’s release, urging his captors to show mercy towards the 26-year-old former US soldier who has converted to Islam.

They also revealed Kassig had sent them a letter in June.

“I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping and wondering if I should even hope at all,” Kassig wrote.