Suicide blast kills 16 in northeast Syria: monitor

QAMISHLI: A suicide bomber on Wednesday killed at least 16 people in an attack on Kurdish security forces in northeastern Syria claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast in the city of Qamishli killed 10 members of the Kurdish forces, called the Asayish, and six civilians.

“A suicide bomber in a vehicle targeted the Asayish's local headquarters in Qamishli,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based observatory.

IS claimed the attack in an online statement, saying that the suicide bomber had used a “water tanker rigged with explosives to infiltrate an Asayishcommand base”.

The jihadist group has targeted Qamishli and other Kurdish bastions with suicide operations in the past.

Earlier in July, an explosion in a mosque in the city of Ariha killed 25 members of the Al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, including one of its leaders, as they attended evening prayers.

Syrian Kurdish militia have been some of the most successful forces fighting Islamic State in northern parts of the country.

Abdel Rahman described Wednesday's explosion as “massive” and said at least 14 civilians had been wounded.

The charred wreckage of several vehicles was seen at the site of the blast in the industrial district of Qamishli, a majority-Kurdish city in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakeh.

Syria's state news agency SANA said 15 people were killed but did not specify whether they included civilians. However, it said that 50 people were wounded.

Arin Shekhmos, a local journalist in Qamishli, said the blast could be heard throughout the city.

“I wasn't close, but I could hear it from where I was,” Shekhmos told AFP by telephone shortly after visiting the blast site.