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Dozens dead in Syria bomb blast Dozens dead in Syria bomb blast
(about 3 hours later)
A twin bombing has struck a crowd in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria, killing 44 people and wounding dozens more, Syria’s state-run news agency and Kurdish media have reported. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. An Islamic State truck bomb has killed at least 44 people, wounded dozens more and flattened several buildings in a largely Kurdish town in northern Syria, human rights groups and state media have reported.
Media reports said a truck loaded with explosives had blown up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, followed by an explosives-packed motorcycle a few minutes later in the same area. The blasts caused massive damage in the area and rescue teams were working to recover victims from under the rubble, the Sana news agency said. The blast in Qamishli was so powerful that it shattered windows and caused minor injuries across the border in Turkey. It was followed by a second motorcycle bomb a few minutes later, the Associated Press reported.
Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the town’s airport. Video footage showed people fleeing blazing rubble before a second explosion sent them diving for cover.
Syrian state TV showed footage of people running away from a mushroom of grey smoke rising over the town and others running amid wrecked or burnt cars.The Qamishli resident Suleiman Youssef, a writer, said he had heard the first explosion from a few miles away. He said the blasts had levelled several buildings to the ground and many people were trapped under the rubble. A strategic border post under joint control of Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters, the town has been targeted by Isis several times before, although this is the deadliest bomb assault yet.
A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an Isis suicide bomb killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.
Isis said the truck bomb targeted Kurdish military offices. Kurdish forces are leading the ground campaign against Isis further west, in Aleppo province.
Suleiman Youssef, a writer and Qamishli resident, said that he heard the first explosion from a few miles away. He said the blasts levelled several buildings to the ground, and that many people were trapped under the rubble.
“Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast,” he said.“Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast,” he said.
Isis said it had carried out the attack in Qamishli, describing it as a truck bombing that had struck a complex of Kurdish offices. The extremist group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past. The predominantly Kurdish, US-backed Syria Democratic Forces has been the main force fighting Isis in northern Syria. It has captured significant territory from the extremists in the past two years.
The predominantly Kurdish, US-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting Isis in northern Syria, capturing significant territory from the extremists over the past two years. Wednesday’s explosion came as US-backed Kurdish forces pressed ahead with their offensive to take the Isis-held town of Manbij, to the east of Qamishli in Syria.
Wednesday’s explosion came as US-backed Kurdish forces pressed ahead with their offensive to take the Isis-held town of Manbij, also in northern Syria but to the east of Qamishli. Meanwhile, the Syrian army said it had cut off all supply routes to the eastern, rebel-held part of Aleppo.
An advance by pro-government forces around the only remaining supply route into the eastern sector this month enabled them to fire on it at close range, making the battlefront Castello road too deadly to use and putting at least 250,000 people in rebel-held districts under siege.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the eastern parts of Aleppo had been under effective siege since 11 July, and that advances in recent days by pro-government forces had strengthened their control of the only route into the city.