ISIS has attacked the Rajm al-Salibi refugee camp in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh Province today, fighting Kurdish forces in the area, and killing at least 38 people, including 23 civilians, in the area around the border crossing into neighboring Iraq.
Kurdish officials insist that they still control the area, though fighting apparently raged throughout the day. The refugee camp apparently houses a large number of people from the neighboring Deir Ezzor Province, which is overwhelmingly under the control of ISIS.
ISIS has never taken very kindly to people fleeing its territory, and has often gone out of its way to attack fleeing civilians to try yto make an example of them and discourage any further exodus from their borderlands. This has become a growing problem as they face offensives on many fronts.
Kurdish forces have mostly been able to keep ISIS out of Hasakeh Province, at least for more than brief incursions, but as they commit more and more fighters to attackiing ISIS territory further west toward Raqqa, they will necessarily have less remaining to defend against such incursions.