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ISIL says it targeted Kurds in truck bomb in Qamishli, Syria

People look for survivors under debris at a damaged site after two bomb blasts claimed by Islamic State hit the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli near the Turkish border, Syria July 27, 2016.

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Qamishli, one of the biggest cities in Hasakah province, is located just five kilometers from the Turkish border.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack through its propaganda agency Amaq, which said over 100 persons had been killed in the truck bombing attack on the headquarters of “Kurdish units”. Most of the victims were civilians, who were lingering in the district that also houses a station for the Kurdish security forces.

It added that the attack was to avenge the killing of men, women and children in Islamic State-controlled Minbij city in northern Syria.

An AFP reporter in the city said a suicide bomber blew himself up by a checkpoint near local Kurdish administration buildings including the defence ministry.

The YPG captured large areas of territory from Islamic State in northeastern Syria past year and is involved in a US-backed offensive that has advanced against the jihadists further west near the Turkish border. The group has carried out a number of bombings in Qamishli, which is in Hasaka province, and in the provincial capital, Hasaka city.

The terror group has claimed responsibility for a spate of terror attacks recently, including one that killed at least 21 people in Baghdad, Iraq, this week.

A second explosion minutes after the first blast, originally thought to be a motorcycle attack, appeared to come from a gas canister that caught fire by the truck, the Associated Press reported. The scene is filled with burned cars, damaged buildings. She said the explosives-laden vehicle was believed to be an empty livestock truck that went off in the main street, named after the nearby town of Amuda.

In May, Kurdish-led Syrian forces, backed by US-led airstrikes, started a major attack to dislodge IS from Minbij and have since gained ground against the radical group.

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The bomb blasts on Wednesday come as the USA -backed coalition and the SDF advance on ISIS in the town of Manbij, also in northeastern Syria.

At Least 25 Killed, Over 100 Injured in Terrorist Attack in Qamishli, Syria