Islamic State launches 2 major attacks in northern Syria

Islamic State militants launched two major attacks in northern Syria today, storming government-held areas in the mostly Kurdish city of Hassakeh and pushing into Kobani the Syrian Kurdish border town they were expelled from early this year where they set off three cars bombs, killing and wounding dozens, activists and officials said.
The attacks came after the Islamic State group suffered several setbacks in northern Syria against Kurdish forces over the past weeks.
In Kobani, which famously resisted a months-long assault by the Islamic militants before driving them out in January, an activist group said 10 people died in fighting today the first time in six months the IS had managed to enter the town along the Syria-Turkey border.

In the city of Hassakeh, Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, said IS militants attacked government-held neighborhoods on the southern edge of the city, and captured some areas.
Hassakeh is divided between Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and Kurdish fighters.
Syrian state TV reported intense clashes inside Hassakeh's southern neighborhood of Nashawi. According to the report, IS fighters killed several people they captured in the city, including the head of a military housing institution.

It said the militants sustained many casualties, including the commander of the group who is a foreign fighter.
IS tried to storm the city earlier this month and reached its southern outskirts before facing strong resistance from Syrian government troops who pushed them away.

The attacks on Hassakeh and Kobani came just days after YPG fighters and their allies captured the Islamic State stronghold of Tal Abyad on the border with Turkey and the town of Ein Issa to the south.
Kurdish fighters have been advancing since January under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition.
But in neighboring Iraq, government forces and allied Shiite militiamen have been slow in retaking IS-held territory. The Iraqis have also suffered occasional losses.
Iraqi troops drove IS militants from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in April, but lost Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad, last month.

In June last year, the Islamic State group launched a blitz, capturing large parts of both Syria and Iraq and subsequently declared an Islamic caliphate on the territory it controls. A major IS attack was widely expected during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last week.
In an audio message Tuesday, IS spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, urged Sunni Muslims to use the time of piety and dawn-to-dusk fasting during Ramadan to wage jihad and seek martyrdom.
"Attack them everywhere and shake the ground beneath them," he said. It was not possible to verify the recording, but it resembled previous audio statements from the group.