Car bomb explosion rocks northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli; casualties reported

Several people have lost their lives or sustained injuries when a powerful explosion ripped through a residential area in Syria’s Kurdish-populated northeastern city of Qamishli on the border with Turkey.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that a car rigged with explosives went off in the Kaddour Beek district of the city, situated 680 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus, on Monday afternoon, without mentioning the number of casualties.  

Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the explosion took place at around 1:30 p.m. local time (1030 GMT) in front of the local headquarters of the Kurdish police force, known as Asayish.

The Britain-based Observatory said the bomber “tried to reach the headquarters of Kurdish security forces, but surrounding checkpoints and obstacles prevented him from doing so.”

“When Kurdish security forces became suspicious of the vehicle, one of its passengers ran away while a second detonated the explosive,” it added.

The group added that at least seven civilians, including three women and a boy, were injured in the act of terror.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Army units hit, destroy Fateh al-Sham positions in Idlib, Hama

Separately, Syrian government forces have pounded the positions of terrorists from the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, in the country’s northwestern province of Idlib and the west-central province of Hama, dealing heavy blows to the Takfiris.

Syrian troops bombarded the fortifications of Fateh al-Sham terrorists in the town of Kafr Zita, located 30 kilometers north of Hama.

Army units also tracked the movement of the foreign-sponsored terrorists in the suburbs of Kafrsajna town in Ma'arrat al-Nu'man district of Idlib and targeted their vehicles. While several militants were killed and injured in the process, a number of them managed to flee to save their lives.

Tens of bodies found in former Daesh secret prison in Dayr al-Zawr

Moreover, pro-opposition and Arabic-language Halab Today television network reported that people in the al-Shaafah town of Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr have found the remains of 50 bodies, believed to be prisoners, inside a trench under a house that the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group used as a secret prison.

An informed source, requesting not to be named, said some of the bodies are determined to belong to Iraqi nationals based on documents and personal evidence found in their clothes.

The source added that the secret prison had been dug in the cellar of a building, which Daesh previously used as a depot of improvised explosive devices and a bomb-making workshop.

The source said the building was deserted and when its owner wanted to renovate it, he discovered the prison and the decomposing bodies.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc on the country.

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