BEIRUT — After weeks of setbacks, Islamic State militants launched swift counteroffensives Thursday on predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, killing and wounding dozens and setting off car bombs, activists and officials said.
The two-pronged attack on the city of Hassakeh and the border town of Kobani came two days after Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani had urged militants to strike back at foes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The early morning assault by IS captured part of Hassakeh, which has long been divided between Syrian Kurds and the military forces of President Bashar Assad.
The militants also hit Kobani, which had become a symbol of Kurdish resistance against the Islamic State extremists. The Kurdish forces, backed by a campaign of U.S.-led airstrikes, drove the militants from Kobani and surrounding villages in January.
Thursday’s fighting in Kobani killed 35 civilians and Kurdish fighters, and 14 extremists, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It was the first time in six months the militants had entered the town, the group said.
The IS militants wore Syrian rebel uniforms and carrying flags of the mainstream Free Syrian Army to deceive the Kurdish defenders during the attack on Kobani, said Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
Kobani-based activist Mustafa Bali said in the evening that IS fighters were still in the city and held several buildings, but that YPG fighters were trying to surround them. He said some IS militants were using civilians as human shields.
Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus wrote on Twitter that four people were killed and 96 people had been wounded in Kobani.
A suicide bomber detonated his car near the border gate, according to two Turkish officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
The attacks on Hassakeh and Kobani came days after Kurdish 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.
