Beirut: A assault led by bombers killed dozens on Tuesday at a camp for the displaced near Syria’s border with Iraq, as pressure grows on the IS group in both countries.
The violence left at least 38 people dead and came as another surprise IS attack on Tuesday killed 10 soldiers in Iraq, to the south along the border.
The fighter group appears to be lashing out as it faces escalating offensives on its last two major bastions: second city Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in neighbouring Syria.
IS’s dawn attack in Syria’s northeast hit a makeshift camp near the border with Iraq where some 300 families were waiting to cross into territory held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance that is leading the assault on Raqa.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said at least five suicide bombers blew themselves up inside and outside the camp in Hasakeh province which hosts Syrians and Iraqis forced from their homes.
Heavy clashes then erupted between the IS fighters and the SDF near the camp, which lies just inside Syrian territory, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He said at least 38 people had been killed including 23 displaced Syrians or Iraqi refugees. “At least 30 people were wounded, and the death toll may rise because some people are in critical condition and others are still unaccounted for,” the Britain-based monitor said.
Kamal Derbas, a press officer for the Kurdish Red Crescent, put the civilian death toll at 22.
Civilians fleeing IS in both Syria and Iraq have made their way to the desolate border region seeking protection and onward passage to safety in Kurdish-controlled territory.
— AFP
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