ISLAMIC STATE STRIKES SYRIA’S DEIR EZZOR, AT LEAST 75 DEAD

BEIRUT/ADEN: At least 75 civilians were killed in an Islamic State car bombing that struck a gathering of people displaced by fighting in eastern Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.

Saturday’s attack in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor killed “at least 75 displaced civilians including children” and wounded 140, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Abdel Rahman said the victims had fled battles in the province, where Syrian regime forces and a US-backed Kurdish- Arab alliance, the Syrian Democratic Forces, are fighting the extremist group in separate offensives.

Fighting across Deir Ezzor province has sent thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives, some straight into the desert.

Some had sought refuge in a desert area controlled by the SDF on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River where the bombing struck.

ISIS CLAIMS ‘ONGOING’ ATTACK IN YEMEN

The Islamic State claimed a major attack on Sunday on Yemen’s government bastion of Aden, which left eight police officers dead and sparked a hostage crisis that was still on at the time of going to print.

The claim of the suicide attack on the security forces in the southern port city was made online by the extremist group’s Aden and Abyan Wilayah, which said “clashes are still ongoing”.

Security officials in the southern province of Aden, where the Yemeni government is based, confirmed they were continuing to battle armed militants, who had taken hostages in a police department, hours after the first attacks hit.

A high-ranking official with the state security forces said an explosives-rigged car blew up outside the Aden criminal investigations unit, killing six officers along with the driver.

Gunmen then stormed the building, taking an unknown number of police detectives hostage inside.