Islamic State militants launch attack on Kurdish border

FILE – in this Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014 file photo, Islamic State group militants hold their weapons in their combat positions west of Baghdad. (Source: AP)

A Syrian Kurdish official and an activist group say Islamic State militants have launched an attack against a predominantly Kurdish town on the Turkish frontier.

Kurdish Democratic Union Party spokesman Nawaf Khalil says IS fighters opened a “wide-scale and powerful offensive” against Ras al-Ayn, a town of some 50,000 people and home to a border crossing with Turkey.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the fighting is focused in the countryside west and south of Ras al-Ayn.

Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said Wednesday that Islamic State militants captured the village of Tal Ghanzeer overnight. The village is located some 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Ras al-Ayn.

Kurdish fighters backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes repelled a similar IS assault against the border town of Kobani earlier this year.

Source:: Indian Express