Despite suffering some losses to coalition forces earlier in the week, ISIS maintained momentum after launching a fresh assault on the Syrian city of Kobani, in northern Syria, early Thursday. The militant group’s attacks were led by two car bomb blasts close to the Turkish border, according to reports from aid groups in the area.
ISIS militants attempted to seize the town from Kurdish YPG militia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), with dozens of people killed and injured.
SOHR reported that ISIS fighters snuck into Kobani by wearing Kurdish military uniforms and then started attacking.
ISIS controlled the city earlier in the year but lost control after a protracted battle with Kurdish forces which saw most of the cities reduced to ruins.
ISIS also launched an attack on the northeastern Syrian city of al-Hasakah, 170 miles east of Kobani, according to SOHR.
The fighting was reported as heavy, with the Syrian air force conducting airstrikes and ISIS militants detonated car bombs at Syrian military checkpoints. According to SOHR, as of Thursday morning the terror group had taken control of neighborhoods in the southern part of the city.
The fighting saw approximately 30 Syrian soldiers killed, with 20 dead reported for ISIS, although these numbers could not be confirmed.
The renewed ISIS offensives come after the terror group recently suffered losses in the Syrian cities of Ain Issa and Tal Abyad, inside of their stronghold city of Raqqa. Kurdish forces made the push while being supported with U.S. airstrikes.
Reports late Wednesday were that ISIS was calling on reinforcements and digging trenches to prepare for an assault by Kurdish forces on the city, which is the group’s effective capital.
There was no confirmation early Thursday that such an attack had taken place.
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