Is ISIL after a second Kobane in Ras al-Ayn?

There are reports indicating that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) may be preparing to launch an attack on the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn near the Turkish border.

The town is just across from the Turkish border town of Ceylanp?nar, and in the past there have been fatal incidents in which bombshells dropped on the Turkish side of the border from fights between jihadist and Kurdish forces. Ras al-Ayn and its surrounding villages are known to be under the control of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) of Syria, a Kurdish party in line with the Turkey-origin Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK).

A massive attack by ISIL on another Syrian town, Kobane (or Ayn al-Arab), in another part of the 910 km long Turkish-Syrian border between September 2014 and January 2015, was repelled after strong resistance from the YPG fighters (the armed branch of the PYD), with the help of the PKK, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmarga (which crossed into Kobane via Turkey), and air support and attacks by the U.S.-led coalition. The town was left in ruins, and more than 150,000 of its inhabitants are still living in refugee camps around the Turkish town of Suruç, across from Kobane. Kobane is northwest of Raqqa, the ISIL capital in Syria, whereas Ras al-Ayn is in the northeast, towards Iraq.

The ISIL advance on Ras al-Ayn could be an attempt to secure another physical contact point with the Turkish border in order to renew the illegal crossing of foreign fighters into Syria, as well as the crossing of supplies, which has become more difficult due to stepped up security measures taken by the Turkish authorities and the PYD?s increasing control over larger portions of the Turkish border on the Syrian side.

The reports about Ras al-Ayn come at a time when ISIL...