Surprise attack by Islamic State kills at least 21 in Syria

Islamic State militants have staged a surprise attack in north-eastern Syria, killing at least 21 people, many of them civilians who had fled fighting in areas of Syria and Iraq held by the extremist group, Kurdish officials said.

Surprise attack by Islamic State kills at least 21 in Syria

Islamic State militants have staged a surprise attack in north-eastern Syria, killing at least 21 people, many of them civilians who had fled fighting in areas of Syria and Iraq held by the extremist group, Kurdish officials said.

The attack took place after militants entered the village of Rajm Sleibi, on the front line between the Kurdish-controlled Hassakeh province and IS-held areas further south.

The village, near the Iraqi border, houses a temporary camp for displaced people fleeing IS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq.

Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the main Kurdish fighting force in Syria, said the attack started with an early morning assault by militants on a checkpoint in Rajm Sleibi belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed, Kurdish-dominated force that fights IS.

The militants then "committed a massacre" of displaced civilians as they sought to enter SDF-controlled territory, Mr Khalil said.

He said at least 21 civilians were killed and 15 wounded. He added that the attack came a few hours after IS suicide bombers dressed in civilian clothes entered the town of Shaddadeh and engaged SDF forces, triggering clashes.

IS is under attack by an array of forces in Syria and Iraq.

In Syria, the SDF, backed by US-led coalition air strikes, is fighting to recapture the town of Tabqa.

The town is an important stronghold for the militants, about 25 miles south east of their de facto capital, the city of Raqqa.

The Kurdish-led opposition fighters have pushed the extremists to northern neighbourhoods of Tabqa, close to one of Syria's largest dams.

In Iraq, the extremist group is fighting for survival against Iraqi forces and their allies in the last neighbourhoods it still holds in the western part of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

Rajm Sleibi is about 18 miles south of the town of al-Hol, which houses a refugee camp for displaced civilians.

A Kurdish activist said it is the entry point to Hassakeh for Syrians civilians fleeing the eastern Syrian cities of Deir el-Zour and Raqqa, and those fleeing Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq.

The activist put the death toll at 22, saying the victims were mostly women and children displaced by the conflict.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict through activists on the ground, put the death toll at 24.

AP

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