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 After recent losses to the Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air
strikes, Islamic State sought to retake the initiative with attacks
on the Kurdish-held town of Kobani at the Turkish border and
government-held areas of Hasaka city in the northeast.
In a separate offensive in the multi-sided Syrian civil war on
Wednesday, an alliance of rebels in the south of the country also
launched an attack with the aim of driving government forces from
the city of Deraa.
The attacks by Islamic State follow two weeks that saw the Kurds
advance deep into the hardline group's territory, to within 50 km
(30 miles) of its de facto capital Raqqa, hailed as a success by
Washington.
The United States and European and Arab allies have been bombing
Islamic State since last year to try and defeat a group, also known
as ISIS or ISIL, which a year ago proclaimed a caliphate to rule
over all Muslims from territory in Syria and Iraq.
The U.S.-led campaign faced serious setbacks last month when Islamic
State seized cities in both Syria and Iraq. The latest Kurdish
advance in Syria has again shifted momentum against the jihadists,
but Islamic State fighters have adopted a tactic of advancing
elsewhere when they lose ground.
 The group said its fighters had seized al-Nashwa district and
neighboring areas in the southwest of Hasaka, a city divided into
zones of government and Kurdish control. Government forces had
withdrawn toward the city center, it said in a statement.
Syrian state TV said Islamic State fighters were expelling residents
from their homes in al-Nashwa, executing people and detaining them.
Many Islamic State fighters had been killed, it said, included one
identified as a Tunisian leader.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war, said
Islamic State had seized two districts from government control.
Government-held parts of Hasaka are one of President Bashar
al-Assad's last footholds in the northeast region bordering Iraq and
Turkey, territory mainly governed by Kurds since Syria descended
into civil war in 2011.
Wednesday's separate Islamic State attack on Kobani, also known as
Ayn al-Arab, began with at least one car bomb in an area near the
border crossing with Turkey, Kurdish officials and the Observatory
said. Islamic State fighters were battling Kurdish forces in the
town itself.
Kobani was the site of one of the biggest battles against Islamic
State last year. Kurdish forces known as the YPG, backed by U.S. air
strikes, expelled the fighters in January after four months of
fighting.
YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said Thursday's attackers had entered the
town from the west in five cars, deceptively flying the flag of the
Western-backed Free Syrian Army movement, which has fought alongside
the YPG against Islamic State.
"They opened fire randomly on everyone they found," he told Reuters.
A doctor in Kobani, Welat Omer, said 15 people had been killed and
70 wounded, many of them seriously. Some had lost limbs. Some of the
wounded had been taken to Turkey.
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Around 50 people fled to Kobani's Mursitpinar border gate with
Turkey after the attack, seeking to cross the border, local
witnesses said. Syrian state TV said the attackers had entered
Kobani from Turkey - a claim denied by the Turkish government.
Islamic State militants killed at least 20 Kurdish civilians in an
attack on a village south of Kobani, the Observatory reported.
REBELS AIM TO SEIZE DERAA
The United States has rejected the idea of working with Assad in the
war against Islamic State.
Elsewhere in Syria, Assad's government has faced increased military
pressure since March, losing ground in the northwest, the south and
the center of the country, where Islamic State seized the city of
Palmyra last month.
The rebels in the south launched their assault on Wednesday to
capture Deraa, which, if it falls, would be the third provincial
capital lost by Assad in the four-year-long war, after Islamic
State-held Raqqa and Idlib held by another rebel alliance.
Assad's control is now mainly confined to the major population
centers of western Syria, where he has sought to shore up his grip
with the help of Lebanon's Hezbollah Shi'ite militia, his main
allies.
An alliance of rebel groups known as "The Southern Front", which
profess a secular vision for Syria, said its Deraa offensive had
begun at dawn. The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front also has a presence
in the south.
"The goal is to liberate what is left of Deraa city in the hands of
the regime," said Issam al-Rayyes, a Southern Front spokesman.
Deraa's provincial governor Khaled al-Hanous told state TV the
insurgents had launched "a real war with intensified shelling with
various weapons or artillery on citizens in the neighborhoods of the
city and on hospitals, schools and infrastructure".
The rebels had not made "one meter of progress", he said.
The Observatory reported heavy fighting and army air strikes in the
Deraa area.
(This story corrects paragraph 22 to reflect that Nusra Front is not
a member of the Southern rebel alliance but also has a presence in
the area)
(Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Turkey and Suleiman
Al-Khalidi in Amman; Editing by Peter Graff)
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