Special to WorldTribune.com

In a move seen as retribution for recent defeats at the hands of Kurdish fighters, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) massacred 146 civilians in and around the Syria city of Kobane.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 120 civilians were killed in a 24-hour period that began on June 25 in Kobane and another 26 were killed in the nearby village of Brakh Bootan. The Observatory reported that women and children were among those executed.

“According to medical sources and Kobane residents, 120 civilians were executed by IS in their homes or killed by the group’s rockets or snipers,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. “When they entered the town, the jihadists took up positions in buildings at the southeast and southwest entrances, firing at everything that moved.”

Journalist Mostafa Ali said ISIL “just came to kill the highest number of civilians in the ugliest ways possible.”

“Every family in Kobane lost a family member on Thursday,” Kurdish activist Arin Shekhmos said.

Kurdish YPG militia forces, with assistance from U.S.-led air strikes, have recently advanced within 30 miles of Raqqa, the capital of ISIL’s self-declared caliphate.

The June 25 attacks on Kobane and on the northeastern city of Hassakeh were seen by experts as ISIL’s attempt to regain momentum in the region.

ISIL is said to have gained control of at least one district of Hassakeh, which is divided into zones run by the Syrian government and the Kurdish YPG. The U.S. has been seen as reluctant to engage in air strikes in Hassakeh as long as part of the city remains under Syrian President Bashar Assad’s control.

In ISIL’s June 25 attack on Hassakeh, the United Nations reported that 60,000 people were forced to flee their homes and as many as 200,000 may eventually be displaced by the fighting.

  Bashar Assad, in Kobane, including women and children, Kurdish YPG, Latest ISIL massacre: 146 civilians dead in Kobane, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, WorldTribune.com