IS claims responsibility for carrying out suicide bombing in Syria

[caption id=“attachment_2508250” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The Islamic State group said on Wednesday that it carried out a suicide bombing that killed 16 people in a mainly Kurdish city in northeastern Syria. Tuesday evening’s blast in Hasakeh struck outside a bakery in a Kurdish neighbourhood where a large crowd had gathered as they prepared to break the last daytime fast of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The bomber infiltrated the Salihiah district then blew up his explosives belt in the middle of the crowd, IS said in a statement on social media. A Kurdish police source said the bomber, who was on a motorbike, also wounded 40 people. Fifteen of them were in critical condition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said. Parts of Hasakeh remain under Syrian government control but most of the city and nearly all of the surrounding province are held by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). The YPG, who have declared an autonomous region across the mainly Kurdish northern areas they hold, are regarded by the Pentagon as the most effective fighting force against IS on the ground in Syria.