The attack on Kobani was worse then we thought. 142 dead in raid on city. AP

ISIS fighters shooting AA at a Syrian airplane. AP.

The ISIS attack on Kobani was much more severe then first thought. AP. The Syrian government claims that 120 people died in the ISIS raid on Kobani Friday, though Syrian activists gave 142 dead and 183 more wounded, including women and children. 40 ISIS fighters were also killed, though there are fighters still left in the city. The fighters have taken hostages as well. The ISIS forces infiltrated into the city at night and set off three car bombs at dawn while other fighters took up fortified positions. The attack has been described as a suicide mission with the goal of killing as many people as possible. ISIS gunmen are shooting randomly at civilians as they come into range. The attacks come at the same time as a major offensive in Hassakeh, where another bombing killed 20 troops. ISIS has promised that the Islamic holy month of Ramadan a "month of calamities for non--believers". 

My Comment:

This has been a very good week for ISIS in terms of successful attacks. There were three large terror attacks today and it seems like ISIS was directly responsible for the attacks in Kuwait and Tunisia. It's possible they inspired the attack in France as well. With the ongoing situation in Kobani and the terror attack in Hassakeh, that makes at least four major terror attacks in one day, five if it turns out the attack in France had ISIS links. That's a major accomplishment for a terror organization that has largely focused on taking and holding territory. 

I consider the attack on Kobani to be more of a terrorist attack then a legitimate military mission. The fighters that entered the city had no intention of holding it, or even surviving. Their goal was to cause as much destruction and death as possible. There is obviously a military component to their goal as well, after all the Kurds will have to move their forces around to counter this threat and possibly halt their advance as well, but my guess is that this was more about revenge then anything else. 

After all, the Kurds gave ISIS one hell of a bloody nose in Kobani. As everyone should know now, ISIS laid siege to the city, but had to abandon it after months of closer range fighting and withering airstrikes. Kobani was the first major defeat for ISIS and a major symbolic victory for everyone else. Hitting Kobani as hard as ISIS has sends the message that nowhere in Syria is safe and that Kobani may have been a victory, but the war is not over. 

Though Kobani is important the much more important battle is in Hassakeh. It sounds like the Kurds and the Syrians are in danger of losing the city. Kobani will probably still stand but I can't say I am confident that Hassakeh will as well. Something I noticed, buried in the article, is that U.S. airplanes are bombing ISIS positions near the city. Since the city is partially controlled by the Syrian government, it means that the United States is indirectly assisting the Syrian regime. That's how desperate things are there. I don't expect anyone in either government to admit that though... 

Of course, for ISIS the timing couldn't be worse. The news is going to be completely dominated by the Supreme Courts decision to legalize gay marriage. Whatever you think about gay marriage you have to admit that the fact that news is too busy covering it to talk about the biggest group of homophobes on the planet. ISIS won't be on anyone's minds, except for people with a special interest in world events, because for the next week or so the news isn't going to be about anything else besides gay marriage unless something utterly disastrous happens. For ISIS to get back the spotlight, they would have to pull off a major terror attack in the United States or Europe, that makes even today's events look tame in comparison. I guess that is possible but my guess is that ISIS has used up most of its terror attacks in the short term.

This is very bad news for the terrorist organization. Terrorism works by getting into the news and making it seem like people are unsafe. Right now nobody is going to pay attention to ISIS so today's terrorist attacks won't have nearly the impact they would have had normally. Of course, in the countries that were actually hit, they won't have the gay marriage story to distract them, so it's not like ISIS failed at all of their goals. But the American and to a lesser extent, European populations attention is elsewhere.