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Islamic State claims attack on Kurdish town on Syria’s border; 40 dead

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.

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Qamishli, which is mostly inhabited by Kurds, has been targeted by recent bombings, many claimed by Islamic State.

Syrian state media put the official death toll at 44 people but the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated it at 48.

It may be mentioned here that Qamishli is the largest Kurdish city in Syria and the main capital of the Rojava.

Kurdish forces, known as YPG, control broad swaths of territory in northeastern Syria along the border with Turkey, as well as pockets in Aleppo city and further to the northwest in Afrin.

A large truck bomb was set off near the security headquarters of the Kurdish administration that controls most of Hasaka province in the northeast, said the Observatory.

Abdel Rahman told dpa earlier a auto bomb targeted the Justice Department and Kurdish internal security force in the town, which is located in al-Hasaka province.

In a statement circulated on social media, it said the attack was carried out by a bomber in an explosives-laden truck.

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.

Death toll from two explosions feared to rise as ISIL claims attack targeting Kurdish area Qamishli.

A man watches as people search for survivors after a suicide bombing hit the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on July 27.

Last year, a US-backed alliance led by Kurdish fighters, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), launched an offensive against IS in Hassakeh.

He added that local hospitals had been flooded with casualties from the attack.

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The opposition-held east has been effectively under siege since Jul 7, when government forces advanced within firing range of the sole remaining route in.

Residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Syria’s northeastern city of Qamishli