Car bomb in Syria’s Idlib province kills 10, says war monitor
BEIRUT: A car bomb killed 10 people in Syria’s oppositionheld Idlib province on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Sunday.
The attack occurred in a market in the town of Al-Dana, located in the north of the province near the border with Turkey, according to the Observatory.
Three people under 18 were among the dead and the blast also injured at least 30 other people, it said. Another bombing in the town after midnight on Friday killed two people, it added.
Opposition groups in Idlib province have been sporadically fighting each other since early this year. Opposition fighters have also accused Daesh of carrying out attacks in the area.
Idlib province is a major stronghold of the opposition in Syria and is situated along the border with Turkey, one of the main backers of their rebellion against President Bashar Assad.
Large numbers of fighters, along with their relatives and many other civilians, have moved into the area under amnesty after surrendering to the army in other parts of Syria.
The UN and aid agencies have voiced concern about the humanitarian situation in Idlib, where large numbers of people live in poor conditions and face aerial bombardment.
Meanwhile, Assad delivered prayers for Islam’s Eid Al-Fitr holiday in Hama on Sunday, the furthest he has traveled inside Syria in years, showing his growing confidence.
State television broadcast footage of Assad standing to pray in a large mosque in Hama behind its imam, with other clerics standing alongside and a large crowd of worshippers.
Since the war began in 2011, the regime has killed hundreds of thousands, driven millions more from their homes, sparked a global refugee crisis and drawn in regional and world powers.
The conflict is far from over. Opposition fighters hold swathes of the country, including around Idlib province near Hama, and launched a new attack in Quneitra in the southwest on Saturday.
The fighters also hold the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus, parts of the desert in the southeast and a large pocket south of Hama around the city of Rastan.
As recently as March, fighters advanced from Idlib province to within a few kilometers of Hama, before the army and its allies pushed them back in weeks of fierce fighting.
However, the army drove fighters from their biggest urban stronghold in Aleppo in December and have also forced several important rebel enclaves to surrender over the past year.
Focus on Daesh
Assad has not made a declared visit to Hama, which is about 185 km from Damascus, since the war began. Last year he delivered Eid prayers in Homs, about 40 km closer to Damascus.
Early in the crisis he visited Raqqa, a city that has since become the Syrian capital of Daesh and now faces an assault by a US-backed coalition to drive out the militants.
The fight against Daesh, which has attacked Western cities, has become the focus of Western leaders, some of whom have softened demands that Assad must quit to end the crisis.