(VOVworld) – Islamic State militants killed at least 23 Kurdish people, including women and children, in the Syrian border town of Kobani on Thursday.

Smoke billows from the Syrian town of Kobane, as seen from the Turkish side of the border in Suruc in Sanliurfa province on June 25, 2015 (Photo:AFP)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS made an unexpected attack on Barkh Butan village, shooting 23 dead. The militants later carried out two suicide bomb attacks in the town, but it has no reports on casualties. Kobani is a strategically valuable city that sits on the border with Turkey. It is home to Kurds and is an important base in the anti-IS campaign. Kurdish forces retook the town from IS in January with US backing after four months of brutal back-and-forth battle.