Islamic State seizes 21 villages in Syria and closes in on Kurdish city

Islamic State fighters encircled a Kurdish city in northern Syria near the border with Turkey on Thursday after seizing 21 villages in a major assault that prompted a commander to appeal for military aid from other Kurds in the region. With the United States planning to expand military action against Islamic State from Iraq to Syria, a surveillance drone was spotted for the first time over nearby Islamic State-controlled territory in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s civil war, said. It was not immediately clear who was operating the drone.

We’ve lost touch with many of the residents living in the villages that ISIS (Islamic State) seized

Ocalan Iso, deputy head of the Kurdish forces in Kobani

Islamic State fighters, armed with heavy weaponry including tanks, seized a group of villages near the city of Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish, in an offensive which the Observatory said had started on Tuesday night. It said 21 villages had fallen to Islamic State in the last 24 hours as the group advanced on the city.

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