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Three killed in bomb blast in Syria’s Hasakah province

Sunday, 19 June 2016 1:57 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 19 June 2016 1:58 PM ]

People and security forces gather at the site of a bomb attack in the Syrian city of Qamishli, June 19, 2016. ©AFP

Three people were killed in a bomb blast Sunday in Syria’s northern province of Hasakah during an event marking the massacre of Christians over a century ago.

The bombing was carried out when the assailant blew himself up at a hall in the city of Qamishli, where people had gathered to commemorate the massacre of thousands of Christians by the Ottoman army more than 100 years ago.

According to a security source, the man “tried to enter the hall where people were gathered but was stopped by local security forces, and he detonated himself among them.”

Three members of the security forces who belonged to a Christian group were killed and five others injured, the source added.

The commemoration was held at the Syrian Orthodox Church, where Ignatius Aphrem II is the patriarch.

Qamishli is located on the border with Turkey and has been regularly hit by bomb blasts, mainly claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

People and security forces gather at the site of a bomb attack carried out in Syria’s Qamishli, Hasakah, June 19, 2016. ©AFP

Also on Sunday, Turkish border guards reportedly killed at least 11 people, mainly from one Syrian family, who were trying to cross the border into Turkey. Two women and four children were among those shot dead by the Turkish guards. The Syrians tried to cross into Turkey from the village of Khirbet al-Jouz.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict ever since. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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