Forty-four people have been killed in a massive bombing in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli in north-east Syria, Syrian state TV reports.
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A huge truck bomb exploded near a Kurdish security forces headquarters on Wednesday (July 27) in the Syrian city of Qamishli in Hasaka province. State media put the death toll at 44.
“Most of the buildings at the scene of the explosion have been heavily damaged because of the strength of the blast”, he said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for both explosions, Al Jazeera reported. The extremist group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.
The group said 37 people died, but state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said at least 44 people were killed in the northern city of Qamishli.
Smoke rises while people gather at a damaged site after two bomb blasts claimed by Islamic State hit Qamishli.
At least 170 people are reported to have been wounded in the twin blasts.
ISIS claimed responsibility and said one of its members drove a truck rigged with explosives to reach the Kurdish administrative complex where defense, interior and military recruiting departments operated.
Kurdish fighters have been a key force battling the jihadis in north and northeastern Syria and are the main component in the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance now seeking to oust Islamic State from Manbij. But, if suicide bombers are intercepted, they normally blow themselves up at the checkpoints, inflicting heavy loss of life among security forces and those waiting to pass through.
The latest attack comes amid intense fighting in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, where more than 50 people have been killed in recent days.
The explosion was so powerful it shattered the windows of shops in the Turkish town of Nusaybin, directly across the border.
The attack, at first, was thought to be a double bombing, but sources in the city and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later said the first attack had caused a gas tank to explode.
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UNICEF said on Tuesday that four hospitals in the eastern section of the city, as well as a blood bank, had been hit by airstrikes over the weekend, “disrupting key lifesaving health services for up to 300,000 civilians”.
