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ISIS militants advanced Thursday to the edge of the Syrian city of Hassakeh after intense fighting with regime troops, threatening to take their second provincial capital, The Daily Star reports.

The jihadis have now advanced to “500 meters away from the entrance of Hassakeh, after fierce clashes against regime forces south of the city,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman, director of Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said ISIS had seized all military posts in that area of northeastern Syria, including an unfinished prison building and a power plant, after at least six suicide bombers struck Wednesday.

Regime helicopters meanwhile dropped barrel bombs on jihadi positions, he said.

Control of Hassakeh city is split between regime and Kurdish forces, who have fought ISIS elsewhere in the province.

If ISIS seizes Hassakeh it would be the second Syrian provincial capital to fall under its control, after Raqqa, the group’s bastion to the west.

It would also be the third provincial capital lost by the regime. The northwestern city of Idlib was seized by rebels in March.

Fighting Wednesday around Hassakeh left 27 regime fighters and 26 jihadis dead, the Observatory said.