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SYRIA-CONFLICT-KURDS
Car bomb kills 5 in northeast Syria: monitor
BEIRUT, Aug 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A car bombing killed five people, including
three children, in a Kurdish-held town in northeast Syria on Wednesday, a war
monitor said.
The explosive-rigged vehicle detonated in Al-Qahtaniya, a town in Hasakeh
province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based
monitor.
It said the car bomb exploded near the town’s post office.
State news agency SANA also reported the bombing, saying it killed several
people, including children.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast but the Islamic
State group routinely claims attacks in northeast Syria, despite its
territorial defeat earlier this year.
Such attacks have included arson against wheat fields and deadly car
bombs.
The jihadist group maintains a presence in the country’s vast Badia
desert, as well as in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic
Forces in the country’s northeast and east.
The SDF, backed by the war planes of a US-led coalition, announced the end
of IS’ self-proclaimed “caliphate” in March in the village of Baghouz, in
Syria’s far east.
The country’s war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced
millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-
government protests.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1602 hrs