ISIS claims triple suicide attacks
Terrorists hit Kurdish town in northern Syria, leave dozens dead, wounded, officials says
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Friday for triple suicide bombings in northern Syria that killed at least 26 people and wounded 90, underscoring its ability to launch attacks in areas that it has lost to rival groups.
The extremist group said in a statement posted online that the attacks in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh targeted offices of the main Kurdish militia known as the YPG. The attacks in the town of Tal Tamr occurred late Thursday.
Syrian state media and an activist group said the blasts targeted a medical centre and a busy market.
Tal Tamr, once inhabited by Assyrian Christians, is now an overwhelmingly Kurdish town where the main Kurdish fighting force in Syria — People’s Protection Units, or YPG — is in control. The group is the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State. Syrian State TV and Islamic State said on Friday the blasts killed 60 people and wounded 90, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 were killed, including four Assyrian Christians, and 120 wounded.
Also Friday, the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another opposition group that tracks the civil war in Syria, reported that warplanes struck small, primitive oil refineries used by villagers in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. The Observatory said the warplanes were believed to be Russian.
The LCC said seven people were killed and others were wounded while the Observatory said dozens were killed or wounded in the attack on the villages of Zgheer and Kasra.
The Russians and the U.S.-led coalition have been targeting oil facilities in an attempt to deprive Islamic State of one of its main sources of income.
The Islamic State group on Friday accused Somalia’s Al Qaeda affiliate of killing several jihadi leaders who defected to its side. A detailed report posted on two Islamic State-affiliated websites said Al Shabab leaders had ordered the killing and detention of dozens of jihadis, including Mohamed Makawi, a Sudanese who took part in the drive-by shooting of U.S. diplomat John Ganville and his driver in Khartoum on Jan. 1, 2008.
Makawi and another accomplice, Abdelbasit Haj Hamad, were among four sentenced to death in Sudan for killing Granville, but escaped from prison in 2010. The U.S. offered up to $10 million for information leading to the capture of the two men.
In Washington, the office of Joe Biden said the vice-president had spo- ken with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu by telephone on Thursday to discuss efforts by the United States and Turkey to combat Islamic State.
The leaders also discussed ongoing developments in Iraq, emphasizing the importance of defusing recent tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi government “in a manner that respects Iraqi sovereignty” and fully co-ordinates counter-Islamic State efforts with the U.S.-led coalition.
U.S. President Barack Obama also announced Friday that he would look for ways to gather more intelligence and strike key Islamic State targets when he visits the Pentagon next week. Defence Secretary Ash Carter says he believes the U.S. will be broadening its campaign and building more capabilities to fight Islamic State in the coming weeks.
Turkey has had troops near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul to help train local Kurdish and Sunni forces since last year, but the arrival of additional troops last week sparked uproar in Baghdad. Ankara subsequently halted new deployments.
Iraq’s prime minister issued a formal request Friday for the Foreign Ministry to submit a complaint to the United Nations about the Turkish troops.