The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Amid US airstrikes, IS suicide bomber detonates truck near Syria-Turkey border

suicid

 

An Islamic State suicide bomber detonated a truck laden with explosives today in the besieged Kurdish town of Kobani, near the Turkish border crossing with Syria, a monitoring group and Kurdish sources said.

The attack took place in a northern district of Kobani, which has been the scene of heavy clashes between Kurdish forces and Islamic State fighters.

Idris Nassan, a Kurdish official in Kobani, said two Kurdish fighters had been wounded during the suicide bomb attack, which appeared to have been aimed at clearing a way for the IS fighters to advance further into the town.

“They (IS fighters) tried to advance towards the (border) crossing but the (Kurdish) People’s Protection Units repelled them … and they were not able to push forward,” Nassan told Reuters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported more heavy clashes today inside the city, where US-led air strikes have so far failed to halt the militants’ advance.

The Observatory said there had been at least five US-led strikes early today, mainly targeting southern districts of Kobani, which is known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.

Clashes also continued to the east, killing a dozen Islamic State fighters, the Observatory said.

The militant group wants to seize the town to consolidate a dramatic sweep across northern Iraq and Syria. The advances by the group, which espouses a rigidly conservative brand of Islam, has sent shockwaves through the Middle East

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/172062/amid-us-airstrikes-is-suicide-bomber-detonates-truck-near-syriaturkey-border