IS Claims Responsibility for Dual Car Bombs in Syria

More than 40 people are dead and nearly 150 others injured in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli after a pair of bombs exploded near the Turkish border Wednesday.

A reporter for VOA’s Kurdish service, Zana Omar, was among those injured in the blasts.  Members of his family were also wounded.  VOA’s Kurdish service says Omar’s home, which was near the bombings, has been completely destroyed.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Arab media that a suicide truck bomb demolished the facade of the headquarters of the Kurdish militia which controls the western part of Qamishli. The Syrian government controls another chunk of the city, including an outlying air base.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack through a statement published on its Aamaq news agency website, saying that it was targeting Kurdish security forces.

Former U.S. ambassador to Syria and assistant secretary of state Richard Murphy tells VOA that he thinks it likely that Islamic State targeted the YPG due to their effectiveness in fighting IS.

IS has been battling the U.S.-supported Kurdish YPG militia over control of large swathes of territory in the north of Syria, including the town of Manbij, north of Aleppo. It has carried out numerous suicide attacks in the area and across both Syria and Iraq in recent months.

A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an IS suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.

VOA’s Kurdish service contributed to this report [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance


 

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