Islamic State mounts suicide attacks around Syria’s Hasaka city: Official

Islamic State bombers have blown up about a dozen explosive-packed trucks at Syrian army checkpoints around the government-held northeastern city of Hasaka over the past five days, the city governor said on Thursday. Government troops and militias have been battling to repel Islamic State attacks to the south of Hasaka, which is close to the Iraqi border. Despite nine months of U.S.-led air strikes, the militants have made new territorial gains in recent weeks, seizing areas including the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s vast Anbar province.

There is no collapse, no psychological defeat. Our army had decided against fighting Islamic State in Palmyra itself to avoid civilian casualties and to protect the ancient city.

Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi

The Islamic State has been stepping up lightning attacks on the southern edge of the ethnically mixed city, which is divided into zones run separately by the government of President Bashar Assad and a Kurdish administration. It has also expanded its control along the Syrian-Iraqi frontier. In neighboring Iraq, IS last month used an unprecedented wave of suicide truck bomb attacks to seize Ramadi, the capital of the country’s largest province, in a major setback for the government. More than 3,000 Syrians fleeing clashes between Islamic State and Kurdish fighters have crossed into Turkey since Wednesday, a Turkish government official said.

Middle East Islamic State