UPDATE: ISIS launches coordinated attacks in Syria and Iraq

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - ISIS militants launched coordinated offensives on Wednesday against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq and Iraqi forces in the city of Ramadi, sources said.

ISIS forces launched a major attack with tanks, armored vehicles and heavy weapons against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in an effort to overrun Ras al-Ayn, in Hasakah province on the border with Turkey.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR),  ISIS fighters were able to capture a nearby village.  The Associated Press quoted SOHR as saying more than 1,000 militants were involved in the attack.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq repulsed a multi-pronged ISIS attack in Shingal in which at least one Kurdish soldier was wounded,
 

Meanwhile, the Sunni militants launched a coordinated assault on Iraqi forces in the city of Ramadi in Iraq’s Anbar province. That attack reportedly involved at least 17 car bombs, which killed several security forces.

An estimated 17 ISIS militants were killed in the Ramadi battle, in which coalition forces did not launch any airstrikes.

As the militants escalated violence in northern Syria, Assyrian Christian leaders appealed for help Wednesday to save people’s lives in Hasakah province.

The Syriac National Council of Syria warned that the renewed ISIS attacks have spread fear among Christians in Hasakah.

The militants have kidnapped dozens of Christians in Hasakah over the past few weeks in a spree of abductions.