ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday has revealed shocking details of the Islamic State’s recent deadly attack against Syria’s Kurdish city of Kobani, finding that they were intent on slaughtering as many civilians as possible.
HRW has cited Kurdish authorities and human rights groups inside and around Kobani claiming that the ISIS jihadis killed at least 233 to 262 civilians and wounded an estimated 273 others.
The brutal attack began around 4am on June 25 when the group entered the town after setting off three suicide car bombs.
The attackers were reportedly purposefully targeting civilians while roaming the streets or following people to their homes in order to kill large numbers of family members, witnesses and survivors told HRW.
The local sources have lists of the number and names of civilians killed the ISIS attack on Kobani, or Ain Al-Arab in Arabic. All reports indicate the radical group attacked civilians inside homes and even in places where local fighters were not present.
“They [ISIS] have killed civilians including women, children and elderly…the main purpose was apparently to spread terror among the residents,” the report said.
The Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, said they lost 21 fighters along with 14 members of the Kurdish police. According to the YPG, all ISIS fighters were killed during the clash, except for seven extremists who were able to flee to neighboring Turkey. The group has not given the number of ISIS casualties.
A range of Rudaw interviews last week with civilians in Rojava, the ethnically Kurdish area of northeastern Syria, expressed fear of renewed ISIS violence across the region after the Kobani attack.
The human rights organization has also released a series of videos of Kobani survivors describing the ISIS fighters deliberate killing of civilians and their family members. Fifteen witnesses, including eight who were wounded, recounted tragic and violent stories to HRW.
In one instance, HRW showed the experience of a man named Mohammad who described how he lost 11 members of his family inside their home in early hours of the ISIS attack on Kobani.
