Islamic State fighters have killed more than 150 people in Kobani and nearby villages in the past two days, the New York Times reports. After sneaking into the town disguised as local rebels. ISIS militants set off car bombs and gunned down civilians in the street.

According to the Times, about 100 ISIS fighters, reportedly disguised as members of the Kurdish YPG militia and other Syrian rebel groups, entered the town, from which they had been driven in January, around dawn on Thursday.

“They entered the neighborhoods and started killing civilians on their way,” Baran Mesko, a Kurdish activist in Kobani, said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that ISIS “fired at anything that moved.”

“From yesterday morning at 4 a.m., Daesh sneaked in and started killing in their silent way,” a Kurdish fighter, Simyar Sheikhi, told the Times.

Many civilians were killed in the cross-fire, as Kurdish militia fighters fought back; others were killed in their homes, or randomly targeted by Islamic State snipers. The Associated Press reports that, by some estimates, as many as 200 civilians have been killed in the fighting since Thursday.

Kurdish fighters said they had secured the town by Saturday. The attack was “a suicide mission,” Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia told Reuters. “Its aim wasn’t to take the city but to create terror.”

Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.