Displaced civilians killed in surprise attack by Islamic State

Islamic State militants have staged a surprise attack in north-eastern Syria, killing at least 30 people, most of them civilians who had fled fighting in areas of Syria and Iraq held by the extremist group, officials said.

 

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

The village, near the Iraqi border, houses a temporary camp sheltering hundreds of displaced people who fled IS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq.
Media activists in Hasakeh said victims arriving at the city's hospitals showed evidence of knife and shot wounds.
Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the main Kurdish fighting force in Syria, said the attack started with an early morning assault by IS 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 civilians as they sought to enter SDF-controlled territory, Mr Khalil said.
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.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the Syrian conflict through activists on the ground, put the death toll at 32, including 23 civilians, many of them Iraqis.
IS is under attack by an array of forces in Syria and Iraq.
In Syria, the Kurdish-dominated 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, and Kurdish officials expect the battle for the town might be won in the coming hours.
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 large refugee camp for civilians displaced from Syria and Iraq.
A Kurdish activist said it is the entry point to Hassakeh for Syrians civilians fleeing the eastern cities of Deir el-Zour and Raqqa in Syria, and those fleeing Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq.
The civilians initially spend about two weeks in Rajm Sleibi while they get security clearance from Kurdish authorities, and from there are taken then to al-Hol.
The activist put the initial death toll at 22, saying the victims were mostly women and children displaced from the conflict.
Issam Amin, a media activist in Hasakeh, said he had been told the attack was carried out by just six IS militants who arrived in a Hummer and shot and stabbed displaced Syrians and Iraqis waiting to be let into SDF areas.
The camp is within the zone of influence of the SDF but not immediately protected by the forces.
Syrian state-owned news agency Sana said more than 30 people, including women and children, were killed and 34 wounded in the IS attack on Rajm Sleibi.
AP