October 6, 2014

BEIRUT,— Twin truck bombings killed at least 30 Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters and security officers on Monday in Syria’s northeastern town of Hasakeh in Syrian Kurdistan, a monitoring group said.

“At least 30 members of the YPG and asayesh were killed when two suicide bombers detonated their trucks at the northern entrance to Hasakeh,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

IS militants attempted to storm the town from both east and west of a strategic hill to the south but Kurdish fighters repulsed the attack, said the Britain-based group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

Fierce clashes raged through the night but abated on Monday morning, with sporadic IS mortar fire against the town, the group’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

IS jihadists have been trying for nearly three weeks to seize the town, also known as Ain al-Arab, in a bid to cement their grip over a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.