A female Kurdish fighter has carried out a suicide attack in the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, killing an unknown number of fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a monitoring group has said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the woman blew herself up at an ISIL position east of Kobane on Sunday, detonating a grenade that was in her possession, killing ISIL fighters in the process.
“The operation caused deaths, but there is no confirmed number,” observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The monitor said the woman was a commander in the female unit of the People’s Protection Units, known by its Kurdish initials YPG, which had stormed an ISIL gathering on the eastern outskirts of the town.
The UK-based group said it was the first reported instance of a female Kurdish fighter carrying out a suicide bombing against ISIL, which has itself often favoured the tactic.
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the group’s report.
The attack comes as ISIL fighters continue their offensive on Kobane, despite US-led airstrikes and a renewed push against them by Syrian Kurdish fighters, Al Jazeera informs.
