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Twenty extremists from radical group Islamic State (IS) on Sunday night were killed when they tried to occupy Syrian Kurdish border town Kobane, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.
According to the monitor, the extremists were killed by Kurdish fighters belonging to the People’s Protection Units when they tried to enter an eastern neighborhood of Kobane. The Kurdish militia group fought off another assault by IS fighters early on Monday when a female suicide bomber attacked the extremists at a strategic location to the East of Kobane.
IS extremists tried to storm Kobane from both west and east of the strategic Mishtenur Hill to the south of the town, but Kurdish fighters repelled the attack, the observatory said. A Syrian Kurdish official inside Kobane said that the town was under heavy bombardment and fierce battles before the extremists were repelled by Kurdish fighters.
The IS has captured a part of Mishtenur Hill on Saturday, but the US-led air strikes had slowed their advance.
The officials also said that IS militants were only a kilometer away from the town, and that the female suicide bomber was a sign of the desperate Kurdish defenses. The suicide bombing was the first reported time a female Kurdish fighter had used a tactic often employed by the extremists.
The Observatory also said that the fighting in Kobane on Sunday caused the death of 19 Kurdish fighters as well as 27 IS extremists. The town, which has been under assault for the past three weeks, has become a key battleground in the international fight against the IS. The militant group has sparked further outrage when they released a video of the beheading of UK citizen Alan Henning. The video included a threat to US citizen Peter Kassig, another aid worker being held hostage.
