500 Dead in 5 Days – Mapping ISIS’s Ramadan Offensive

[Valin]

Conflict News:

Michael Cruickshank

July 3, 2015

 

With ISIS suffering one of its largest defeats to date during the YPG’s Tel Abyad offensive, many feared the terrorist group would mount a deadly counterattack in response. Unfortunately these fears were well founded, and during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, ISIS stuck back hard, not just in their strongholds of Syria and Iraq, but also on a global scale against a number of soft targets.

 

 

Kobane, Syria – 300+ dead

 

The largest attack during ISIS’s Ramadan offensive was against the Kurdish city of Kobane. On June 25, ISIS fighters reappeared in the centre of the city, detonating a suicide car bomb (SVBIED) near the border gate with Turkey and then spreading throughout the city, massacring civilians as they went. While the exact number of fighters is unknown, they likely numbered between 50 and 100 based on YPG reports. Indeed it took days of fighting and several coalition airstrikes to fully secure the city once more.

 

When the dust had settled more than 300 people, mostly civilians, lay dead and people were left wondering where the fighters came from. One line of though is that they crossed into Syria form Turkey, with some pro-Kurdish sources alleging that this was facilitated by the Turkish Government. The other line of thought is that the fighters infiltrated into YPG-controlled territory from Jarabulus disguised as allied FSA troops.

 

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