Syria war: Many dead in IS attack on displaced people’s camp

More than 30 civilians and Kurdish-led fighters have been killed in an attack by Islamic State militants near Syria’s north-eastern border with Iraq.

They targeted a makeshift camp for displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees at Rajm al-Salibi, near the town of Shaddadi in Hassakeh province.

The militants also also clashed with members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stationed at a nearby checkpoint.

The US-backed alliance is spearheading the battle against IS in eastern Syria.

Its Kurdish and Arab fighters are close to taking control of the strategically important Euphrates River Valley town of Tabqa and will soon launch an offensive to retake the de facto IS capital of Raqqa.

At least five IS suicide bombers blew themselves up outside and inside the camp at Rajm al-Salibi, south-east of the town of Shaddadi, at dawn on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory, a UK-based monitoring group, reports.

At least 32 people were killed by the bombings and subsequent clashes, among them 21 civilians, and 30 other people were wounded, it adds.

According to Syria’s official Sana news agency, more than 30 civilians were killed and 34 wounded. It did not say whether there had been any suicide bombings.

The Kurdish Red Crescent put the civilian death toll at 22.

SDF fighters took wounded civilians to hospitals in the city of Hassakeh. Several were admitted to intensive care due to the severity of their injuries, according to medical sources cited by Sana.

The militants also abducted dozens of civilians during the attack, an Iraqi army source told the BBC.

It was not possible to verify the report. However, a similar allegation was made by the head of the Iraqi parliament’s human rights committee in an interview with Beirut-based al-Mayadeen TV and Sana cited some of those injured as saying they had lost contact with dozens of their relatives.

They included Syrians from Raqqa and Deir al-Zour provinces, as well as Iraqis who had fled the second city of Mosul, Sana reports. </s> Syrian opposition activists are reporting that two explosions killed 10 people in the northern city of Raqqa.

The Saturday night blasts occurred in two different locations in the city that was once the de facto capital of the Islamic State group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the first blast was a roadside bomb in the city center. It said the second blast was carried out by a suicide attacker driving a vehicle at a checkpoint of U.S.-backed fighters in the central Naim Square, killing five fighters and five civilians.

The Sound and Pictures activist collective that covers IS atrocities said 10 people were killed in Naim square.

Blasts have occurred since U.S.-baked fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured Raqqa in October 2017. </s> Near-simultaneous bombings claimed by the Islamic State group struck in and around strongholds of the Syrian government and Kurdish troops Monday, killing at least 48 people in a wave of attacks that came a day after the militants lost a vital link to the outside world along the Syrian-Turkish border.

The IS-run Aamaq news agency said the attacks included six suicide bombings and one remotely detonated blast. Most targeted security forces.

The Britain-based Observatory, which maintains a network of contacts in Syria, put the overall death toll at 53, although Syrian state TV said 48 were killed. Conflicting casualty figures are common in the 5-year-old Syria civil war.

Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria expert with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said it was too soon to say if the attacks by the IS group were a reaction to its recent defeats along the border.

But she cautioned that setbacks for IS can lead to "a dangerous new phase" by the group, which sometimes resorts to "infiltration and spectacular attacks that exploit and widen rifts" between populations, groups and security forces in both western and northern Syria,

Turkey's recent intervention in the north has exposed major rifts and encouraged anti-Kurdish activity, Cafarella said in emails to The Associated Press. She said it was likely that as IS militants are pushed out of territory, they will increasingly target government and Kurdish areas.

"So it's a dangerous possibility that we're witnessing ISIS gear up for a campaign to expand westward into either or both regime and opposition territory as it loses to the anti-ISIS coalition," she said, using an acronym for the militant group.

The territorial losses at the border were the biggest blow to the militant group that also has suffered a series of recent battlefield setbacks in Syria and Iraq. Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish warplanes and tanks, continued to push IS fighters out of the border strip Monday, securing their hold on an area seized a day earlier.

In Hangzhou, China, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said the U.S. and Russia have not given up on negotiations to halt the bloodshed in Syria, but acknowledged that "gaps of trust" exist between the rival powers.

Significant sticking points remain in negotiations over creating a U.S.-Russian military partnership focusing firepower on "common enemies" in Syria, Obama said. He acknowledged that a meeting Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin did not yield a breakthrough.

A deal would depend on Moscow using its influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad to persuade him to ground planes and stop the assault on opposition forces.

Monday's bombings came in rapid succession during the morning rush hour, targeting the central city of Homs; a highly guarded Damascus suburb; the government stronghold of Tartus, where Russia has a major naval base; and Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria.

State TV showed massive damage at the Arzoneh bridge just outside Tartus along the international coastal highway. The report said the Tartus-Homs highway was closed briefly.

Dozens of burned and mangled cars sat in pools of water mixed with blood after the blaze was extinguished.

"My car caught fire and army soldiers pulled us out of the car," a survivor told state TV from al-Bassel Hospital.

IS and the Observatory said the target was a checkpoint at Tartus' southern entrance. The militant group said it sent three suicide bombers to the area, the first of them in a car. Two followed after security and rescuers responded.

State TV said at least 35 were killed. The Observatory put the figure at 38, including an army colonel. Dozens were wounded.

The coastal city is a popular beach resort among Syrians, with many coming from government controlled areas, particularly ahead of a major Muslim holiday next week.

The Islamic State group claimed suicide bombings in Tartus and neighboring Jableh that killed over 160 people in May.

Areas controlled by Assad's forces have had several bombings and other attacks claimed by both IS and al-Qaida-linked militant groups.

Another of Monday's bombings occurred in the Damascus suburb of Sabbourah, a major security breach in the heavily guarded area. The state-run SANA news agency said the attack killed one person, while the opposition-run Observatory said three were killed.

IS said a suicide car bomb targeted a military checkpoint west of Damascus.

"It's an area that houses officers and their families. Even before the revolution, it was carefully guarded," said opposition media activist Yousef al-Boustani, referring to the 2011 uprising against Assad that began with peaceful protests demanding reform.

Police chief Maj. Gen. Jamal Bittar told state TV that three attackers were in the car that was seen by security forces. They fired at the car, forcing two passengers to get out and the driver to blow it up, Bittar said. Another bomber blew himself up as he was arrested, killing the security officer and wounding three civilians, he added.

A car bomb struck a military checkpoint in the central provincial capital of Homs, killing three soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 10 others, according to the governor of Homs.

The city, which is Syria's third-largest, is largely under government control, with only one neighborhood still held by rebels. The bomb exploded in the government-held Bab Tadmor district. The Observatory said four soldiers were killed.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle in the northeastern city of Hasakeh killed eight people, SANA said. The IS news agency said the attack targeted a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces.

Government troops withdrew from Hasakeh in August after street battles with Kurdish forces, which took control of the city, although the police force stayed in place. The Observatory said the blast killed five Kurdish police, the Asayesh, and three civilians.

IS said it also detonated a bomb in the northeastern city of Qamishli, targeting Kurdish fighters. The Observatory confirmed a bomb but had no casualty figures.

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Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report. </s> “It was three in the morning when Daesh came and started to shoot at people,” said Abdulah Khalef Hamid, an Iraqi refugee from Mosul, who said his mother-in-law was killed in Tuesday’s attack. “I was wounded and they thought I was dead so they left me. We were around 200 families, they left at sunrise,” he added.

The International Rescue Committee said thousands of people from the Iraqi city of Mosul have travelled west to the Sleibi crossing since October, often via smugglers. In a statement, it said several children were among the dead and wounded.

The militants struck before dawn after sneaking into the village of Rajm Sleibi, located along a front line that separates the Kurdish-controlled Hassakeh province from Daesh-held areas further south. Some militants reportedly blew themselves up at a Kurdish checkpoint while others attacked sleeping civilians in a nearby temporary camp sheltering hundreds of displaced people who fled Daesh-controlled territory.

BEIRUT—Daesh militants staged a surprise attack early Tuesday at a crossing frequently used by Iraqi and Syrian civilians seeking safety in northeastern Syria, killing at least 37 people, mostly civilians, Kurdish officials and activists said.

Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the main Kurdish fighting force in Syria, said the attack started with an early morning assault by Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, militants on a checkpoint in Sleibi belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed and Kurdish-dominated force that fights Daesh.

The militants then “committed a massacre” against civilians as they sought to enter SDF-controlled territory, Khalil said.

He told The Associated Press the attack came a few hours after Daesh suicide bombers dressed in civilian clothes sneaked into the town of Shaddadeh and attacked SDF forces, triggering clashes that were ongoing.

Survivors from the attack on the camp said the militants arrived in four cars before shooting several people and kidnapping others.

“They were shouting ‘You are infidels and you are going toward the infidels,’” said Fatima, a displaced Syrian woman who asked that her last name not be used, fearing retribution. “They shot at the checkpoint and at the civilians there, and they dragged the youngsters and put them in the cars and drove them away,” she said.

Issam Amin, a media activist in Hassakeh, said the victims arriving at the city’s hospitals had stabbing and gunshot wounds.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the Syrian conflict through activists on the ground, said Tuesday’s attack included suicide bombers and heavy clashes with the SDF. The Observatory put the death toll at 38, including 23 civilians, many of them Iraqi. Hawar, a news agency for the semi-autonomous Kurdish areas in Syria, put the death toll at 37.

Daesh is under attack by an array of forces in Syria and Iraq.

In Syria, the SDF is now fighting to recapture the town of Tabqa, an important militant stronghold located about 40 kilometres southeast of the Daesh’s de facto capital, Raqqa. Kurdish officials said Kurdish-led opposition fighters have pushed the extremists almost completely out of Tabqa and were cleaning up the town. They said Daesh continues to hold the nearby dam on the Euphrates River.

In Iraq, the extremist group is fighting for survival against Iraqi forces and their allies in the last neighbourhoods it still holds in the western part of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.

Daesh claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks through its Aamaq media arm, saying its fighters attacked four Kurdish positions in the southern countryside of Hassakeh province.

Rajm Sleibi lies about 30 kilometres south of the town of al-Hol, which houses a large refugee camp for civilians displaced from Syria and Iraq. A Kurdish activist said it is the entry point to Hassakeh for Syrians civilians fleeing the eastern cities of Deir el-Zour and Raqqa, and those fleeing from Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq. The civilians spend about two weeks in Rajm Sleibi while they get security clearance from Kurdish authorities, and are then taken to al-Hol.

The activist spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety.

The camp is within the zone of influence of the SDF but not directly protected by its forces.

Elsewhere in Syria, opposition activists said Daesh killed 10 of its own after accusing them of selling weapons to arms traders. The activists said the killings took place in the Mayadeen area in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border.

The Observatory and Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based activist with contacts in the area, said the men were all Iraqis and were shot dead Monday in a main street in front of dozens of onlookers. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption People injured in the attack were taken to hospitals in the provincial capital of Hassakeh

More than 30 civilians and Kurdish-led fighters have been killed in an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants near Syria's north-eastern border with Iraq.

They targeted a makeshift camp for displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees at Rajm al-Salibi, near the town of Shaddadi in Hassakeh province.

The militants also clashed with members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stationed at a nearby checkpoint.

IS said the attack was one of several targeting "apostates" around Shaddadi.

The jihadist group is coming under mounting pressure in northern Syria from the SDF's Kurdish and Arab fighters, who are supported by the US, and from pro-government forces in neighbouring Iraq.

The SDF has driven IS militants out of much of Hassakeh and is close to taking control of the strategically important Euphrates River Valley town of Tabqa.

It will soon launch an offensive to retake the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the "caliphate" proclaimed by IS after the fall of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reports that at least five IS suicide bombers blew themselves up outside and inside the camp at Rajm al-Salibi, east of Shaddadi, at dawn on Tuesday.

At least 38 people were killed by the bombings and subsequent clashes, among them 23 civilians, and 30 other people were wounded, it adds.

According to Syria's official Sana news agency, more than 30 civilians were killed and 34 wounded. It did not say whether there had been any suicide bombings.

The Kurdish Red Crescent put the civilian death toll at 22.

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SDF fighters took wounded civilians to hospitals in the city of Hassakeh. Several were admitted to intensive care due to the severity of their injuries, according to medical sources cited by Sana.

An IS statement said six groups of militants had attacked SDF positions in Shaddadi and its surrounding area on Tuesday, including a "barracks" near Rajm al-Salibi, killing and wounding dozens of people.

An Iraqi army source told the BBC the militants had also abducted dozens of civilians during the attack on the camp.

It was not possible to verify the report. However, a similar allegation was made by the head of the Iraqi parliament's human rights committee in an interview with Beirut-based al-Mayadeen TV and Sana cited some of those injured as saying they had lost contact with dozens of their relatives.

Image copyright AFP Image caption There are several camps for refugees and displaced people along Syria's border with Iraq

About 300 families were waiting at Rajm al-Salibi - where conditions are harsh and there is little shelter - to be screened and allowed to enter SDF territory.

They included Syrians from Raqqa and Deir al-Zour provinces, as well as some of the thousands of Iraqis who have fled to Syria from Mosul since October.

As a result of the attack, approximately 400 people are being relocated from Rajm al-Salibi to another camp at al-Hol. </s> MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia’s al Shabaab stormed a government building on Saturday, detonating a suicide car bomb in the heart of the capital Mogadishu with at least 15 people, including an assistant minister, killed during the ensuing gun battle.

In the latest bombing claimed by al Shabaab, an Islamist group which is fighting to establish its own rule in Somalia, based on a strict interpretation of sharia law, a huge explosion shook central Mogadishu and a large plume of smoke rose above a building housing Somalia’s ministries of labour and works.

Police later said the fighting at the building had ended and that the premises had been completely secured.

“The building was secured by security forces. The four militants who attacked the building were shot dead. Another militant was a suicide car bomber and so he also died,” Major Ali Abdullahi, a police officer told Reuters.

Abdullahi said ten people, including assistant labour minister Saqar Ibrahim Abdala and police personnel, had died.

Police said earlier that some 20 people had been injured in the assault, which began when a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb, allowing other militants to storm the building.

Dr. Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin Ambulance Service told Reuters soon after the assault began that people were trapped inside the building and that it was not possible to rescue them because of a heavy exchange of fire.

Al Shabaab told Reuters one of its fighters had rammed the ministry building with a car bomb allowing others to enter.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operation spokesman later said he understood 20 people had been killed.

In a separate assault on Saturday, Abu Musab said al Shabaab had exploded a roadside bomb at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu that killed three government soldiers and also injured a local lawmaker and three of his bodyguards.

Police confirmed the roadside bomb attack but said two civilians and one soldier had been killed by the blast while a local lawmaker from one of Somalia’s federal states was injured.

Al Shabaab, which is trying to topple Somalia’s western backed central government, was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.

But it remains a threat, with its fighters frequently carrying out bombings in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, whose troops form part of the African Union mandated peacekeeping force AMISOM that helps defend Somalia’s central government. </s> Civilians and SDF members killed after five suicide bombers detonate explosives in Hasaka province, monitor says.

At least 37 people, including dozens of civilians, have been killed in an attack by ISIL suicide bombers targeting an area in northeast Syria held by US-backed Kurdish forces, according to a monitoring group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five suicide bombers detonated explosives in Rajm al-Salib, the location of a checkpoint and refugee camp in Hasaka province near the border with Iraq.

The explosions on Tuesday were followed by gun battles between other ISIL attackers and Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who were manning the area, leaving dozens of people wounded.

"The area where the attacks took place is where many refugees escaping violence in Iraq were gathering," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of Observatory, told the DPA news agency, adding that the attackers might have come from Iraq.

The Observatory monitors Syria's conflict via a network of contacts on the ground.

Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the SDF, confirmed to the Reuters news agency that several civilian casualties included people who fled ISIL from Syria's Deir Az Zor and Iraq.

ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS, said via its Amaq website that a group of 16 fighters had launched an attack on Kurdish checkpoints, killing and wounding dozens.

It said some ISIL fighters carried out four attacks inside al-Shadadi city which mainly targeted military posts, while others carried out attacks inside Hariri village and a sixth squad hit the barracks at Rajm al-Salibi.

The attacks came as Kurdish fighters backed by the US-led, anti-ISIL coalition continued their mission in the town of Tabqa, which sits on a strategic supply route about 55km west of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL in Syria.

"After taking the old city, we now control around 90 percent of Tabqa ... we advanced against the ISIL and pushed further to the other parts of the city," Jihan Sheikh, of the Ghadab al-Furat, a Kurdish group fighting under the SDF, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, has seized large swathes of northern Syria from ISIL in a campaign to drive the group out of Raqqa. </s> A string of bombings claimed by ISIS killed dozens across Syria, as Washington and Moscow failed to agree on a deal to stem the country's violence.

The blasts killed at least 48 people and wounded dozens more, a day after the jihadist group lost the last stretch of the Syria-Turkey border under its control.

In China, where world powers were gathered for the G20 meeting, US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin touted 'productive' talks and 'some alignment' on Syria.

But the two powers failed to produce an expected deal to ease the violence in Syria, where more than 290,000 people have been killed and more than half the population displaced since March 2011.

The latest carnage came in a series of blasts, the deadliest of which was a double bombing in the coastal province of Tartus, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's government and Russia's naval and air force base in the area.

The bombings hit a bridge outside the provincial capital Tartus city, killing at least 35 people and wounding 43, state media said.

The blasts targeted the Arzuna bridge, 'the first a car bomb and the second a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded,' according to state television.

Tartus has been largely spared the worst violence of Syria's conflict since it began with anti-government protests, and has become a refuge for many Syrians fleeing the fighting.

In the northeastern city of Hasakeh, a bomber on a motorbike killed six members of the Kurdish security forces and two civilians.

The city is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces, though the regime is also present.

In central Homs city, the target was the Al-Zahraa neighbourhood, whose residents mostly belong to the same Alawite sect as Assad and have regularly been targeted by devastating bombings.

Four people were killed there on Monday, in a car bomb that hit a checkpoint at the district's entrance.

State television broadcast images from the aftermath of the blast in Homs, showing rubble strewn on the streets and smoke rising from the charred remains of vehicles.

An additional attack hit the Al-Sabura road west of the capital Damascus, with state media saying one person had been killed and three wounded.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said that attack targeted a checkpoint and gave a toll of three dead.

The ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency carried a statement saying the jihadist group was behind a 'string of simultaneous suicide attacks'.

They came a day after Turkish forces and allied rebels seized the last part of the Turkish-Syrian border under ISIS control.

Turkey began an operation inside Syria on August 24, targeting both ISIS but also Syrian Kurdish forces that have been a key US partner in the fight against the jihadist group. </s> At least 13 people were killed on Sunday after a car bomb detonated in the town of Azaz in Syria, AP reported. One report said the toll was 17.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain said the blast occurred when people were leaving a mosque in Azaz after the iftar meal that breaks a day-long fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The observatory said 14 people, including four children, were killed in the blast.

The Azaz Media Center, a local activist collective, reported 13 deaths and several others wounded.

Azaz, which is now held by Turkey-backed fighters, was once controlled by Kurdish fighters opposed to Turkey.

The blast in Azaz comes a day after 10 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in Raqqa, a former stronghold of the Islamic State group in north Syria. The explosion killed five civilians and five soldiers of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by the United States that wrested the city from the Islamic State in October 2017, AFP had reported.
A suicide car bomber kills five soldiers of the Syrian Democratic Forces and five civilians at a checkpoint in central Raqqa, Syria. This and a nearby roadside bomb wound 20 people.