A suicide car bomb in a northwestern Syrian city held by Turkey-backed armed groups killed at least 14 people on Sunday, a war monitor said.

Four children were among those killed in the explosion in Azaz, a city at the heart of a Turkish zone of influence in northern Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The attack also wounded more than 20 people, according to the Britain-based monitor.

“Many people were leaving evening prayers when the explosion happened,” Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.

It was not clear who was behind the attack.

The bombing comes one day after a similar explosion killed 10 people and wounded 20 in the northeastern city of Raqqa.

Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016 and seized more than 2,000 square km in northern Syria including Azaz, clearing the area of ISIS fighters, while preventing any Kurdish advance in the region.

Ankara keeps Turkish troops and intelligence forces in the area, and still backs the local police forces. </s> Suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 50 in two cities north of Baghdad on Sunday, officials said.

One bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at the southern entrance to Tikrit, while another other blew up an ambulance at a car park in Samarra, possibly in concert with a third bomber.

The Tikrit attack killed at least 15 people and wounded at least 33, while at least 10 died and at least 25 were wounded in Samarra, security and medical officials said. Iranian pilgrims were among the victims in Samarra, which is home to a major Shia shrine that was bombed in 2006.

IS issued a statement claiming responsibility, identifying two of the bombers as “Al-Moslawi” — a nom de guerre that would indicate they were from Mosul, though it could be a propaganda attempt to link militants from other areas with the ongoing battle for Iraq’s second city. </s> Beirut: A suicide car bomb in a northwestern Syrian city held by Turkey-backed rebels killed at least 14 people on Sunday, a war monitor said.

Four children were among those killed in the explosion in Azaz, a city at the heart of a Turkish zone of influence in northern Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The attack also wounded more than 20 people, according to the Britain-based monitor.

“Many people were leaving evening prayers when the explosion happened,” Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said.

It was not clear who was behind the attack.

The bombing comes one day after a similar explosion killed 10 people and wounded 20 in the northeastern city of Raqa.

Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016 and seized more than 2,000 square kilometres in northern Syria including Azaz, clearing the area of the Islamic State jihadists, while preventing any Kurdish advance in the region.

Ankara keeps Turkish troops and intelligence forces in the area, and still backs the local police forces. </s> Rebel alliance formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda said it was behind blasts targeting Shia pilgrims that killed dozens.

The alliance of hardline fighters in Syria known as Tahrir al-Sham has claimed responsibility for twin bombings targeting Shia pilgrims in the centre of Damscus that killed at least 40 people.

"On Saturday... a twin attack was carried out by two heroes of Islam ... in the centre of the capital Damascus, killing and wounding dozens," the statement said.

The group, a large portion of which previously fought as an al-Qaeda affiliate, said the attack targeted "Iranian militias" and pro-government fighters in revenge for what it said was Iran's role in supporting President Bashar al-Assad's "tyrannical rule", holding them responsible for "killing and displacing" Syrians.

Iran and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement of Lebanon are close allies of the Syrian government.

The death toll from the blasts remained unclear as of Sunday, however.

Syrian state television said 40 people were killed and 120 wounded by "two bombs detonated by terrorists", while Iraq's foreign ministry said 40 of its nationals had died.

 

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 76 people, including 43 Iraqi pilgrims, were killed when a roadside bomb detonated as a bus made its way through the Ban al-Saghir area of Damascus' famed Old City, and then a suicide bomber blew himself up.

 

The war monitor said 11 bystanders and eight children were killed in the blasts, as well as 20 members of pro-government security forces.

 

In January, the Tahrir al-Sham alliance also claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings in the high-security Kafr Sousa district of Damascus that killed 10 people, eight of them soldiers.

 

The centre of Damascus has been largely spared the violence that has rocked other major cities in Syria's six-year war.

 

But periodic bombings have targeted Shia shrines and were subsequently claimed by hardline groups, including Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). </s> BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State has claimed a suicide bombing that killed at least 15 people and injured 16 at a wedding party near the holy Shi’ite city of Kerbala late on Sunday.

Five assailants including the suicide bomber attacked the celebration in Ain al-Tamr, west of Kerbala in southern Iraq, firing machine guns and throwing hand grenades, the police said. All the attackers were killed by security forces.

The bombing is the first in the Kerbala region since Iraqi forces dislodged Islamic State militants from their stronghold in Falluja, 80 km (50 miles) north of city.

The ultra-hardline Sunni group has been retreating since last year in the face of government forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition and Iranian-supported Shi’ite militias.

But it remains in control of parts of northern and western Iraq and continues to claim bombings all over the country, targeting mainly Shi’ite districts and cities.

A statement on the Amaq news agency that supports Islamic State said the attack was carried out by four of its suicide fighters against a “gathering of Shi’ites”.

Initial reports in local media late, citing security sources, blamed the killings on a dispute between two tribes at the wedding party.

Islamic State claimed a truck bomb that killed at least 325 people in Baghdad’s Karrada shopping street in July, the deadliest attack since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. </s> HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - A woman suicide bomber killed at least 31 people and wounded 35 in a crowded market in the town of Musayab, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, on Friday, security sources said.

Islamic State claimed the attack, as well as one at the main bus station in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala, just west of Musayab, which killed three people and wounded 15.

A security officer said the bomber in Musayab was a woman and had hidden the bomb under her full-body veil.

Islamic State’s statements identified both bombers as men.

The hardline Sunni Muslim insurgents declared a self-styled “caliphate” over parts of Syria and Iraq three years ago but are now on the brink of losing Mosul, their de-facto capital in Iraq, to a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive launched in October.

They are also on the back foot in Syria, retreating in the face of a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led military coalition attacking Raqqa, Islamic State’s urban redoubt there. </s> Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesperson says a double suicide bombing in central Baghdad has killed at least 16 people. The Health Ministry said 26 died.

Maj.-Gen. Saad Maan says the rush-hour attack struck at the city's Tayran Square on Monday morning.

He says it was carried out by two suicide bombers and that the explosions also wounded at least 65 people. The area around the square is usually crowded by labourers seeking work.

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, gave a far higher casualty toll. Spokesperson Saif al-Badr said 26 people were killed and that 90 were wounded but the Interior Ministry couldn't confirm those figures. Different casualty tolls are common in the immediate aftermath of such large attacks.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group, which has claimed such attacks before.

Militant attacks have decreased significantly in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq since the country's security forces retook nearly all territory once held by ISIS. Iraqi and U.S. officials have warned ISIS would continue with insurgent-style attacks. </s> Syria suicide blasts: Islamic State kills more than 200 in coordinated attacks in south-west

Islamic State militants have killed more than 200 people in a coordinated assault on a government-held area of south-western Syria, local officials and a war monitor said, in the group's deadliest attack in the country for years.

The coordinated attacks across the province of Sweida, which included several suicide bombings, shattered the calm of a region that has been largely insulated from the worst of the violence of Syria's seven-year-long civil war.

The suicide bomb blasts inside the provincial capital, also called Sweida, were apparently timed to coincide with attacks on villages in the eastern countryside, creating mayhem across the province.

The attacks triggered deadly clashes between pro-government fighters and residents who picked up weapons to defend their hometowns on one side and IS militants on the other.

By nightfall, the province's health directorate had recorded 215 civilians killed and 180 wounded, according to local official Hassan Omar, making it the single bloodiest day for the province since the 2011 national revolt that sparked the ongoing civil war.

Sultan Bou Ammar, a resident of the village of Shbiki, said some residents unwittingly opened their doors when militants knocked early Thursday morning, so unexpected was the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 200 people were killed, including 94 residents who were part of local defence militias that have the backing of the Syrian Government.

The head of the Sweida provincial health authority told the pro-Damascus Sham FM 75 Islamic State fighters had also been killed.

Syrian state media aired graphic scenes of two blast sites within Sweida city, one showing the bodies of victims and another the aftermath of a motorcycle bombing that struck a busy vegetable market.

The coordinated attacks — the deadliest in months — had all the hallmarks of IS even before it claimed responsibility and were reminiscent of the group's horrific assaults during past years in Syria, already ravaged by civil war.

A statement posted on IS social media channels said militants carried out surprise attacks on government and security centres in Sweida, sparking clashes with Syrian troops and allied militias before detonating their explosive belts.

State news agency SANA said two other IS militants were killed before they could detonate their bombs.

Sweida Governor Amer al-Eshi said authorities also arrested another attacker.

Islamic State still operating in some areas

While Islamic State still has pockets of territory in eastern Syria and in the country's south, it was driven from all other areas it once held in Syria and Iraq last year in separate offensives by the Russian-backed army and a US-backed militia alliance.

Since then, President Bashar al-Assad has gone on to crush the last remaining rebel enclaves near the cities of Damascus and Homs and swept rebels from the south-west.

After losing its strongholds in eastern Syria last year, IS launched insurgency operations from pockets of territory in desert areas.

Government troops and allied forces hold all of Sweida province except for that enclave. It is populated mainly by Syria's minority Druze.

The air force pounded militant hideouts north-east of the city after soldiers thwarted an attempt by IS fighters to infiltrate Douma, Tima and al-Matouna villages, state media said.

The army and villagers regained control of a hill and broke a brief siege of another nearby village after clashes, Ikhbariyah said.

With the help of Russian air power, the Syrian army has been hitting IS in a separate pocket further west, near the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Yarmouk Basin in south-west Syria remains in jihadist hands.

Since their offensive in June, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have retaken control of Daraa city and province.

The city of Sweida has largely been spared most of the violence that Syrian cities have witnessed in the years since the conflict started in 2011.

For the southern offensive, government forces redeployed troops from Sweida province last month. </s> A Syrian jihadist group affi liated with al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a twin bombing on Friday in the capital Damascus that killed at least 40. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said the attack was “a message to Iran” over the country’s support for Syrian president Bashar al Assad. Th e majority of dead were Iraqi pilgrims, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Th e Observatory put the death toll at 74, but the fi gure was not confi rmed. Th e blast wounded 120, according to Iraq’s government. According to the Observatory, the attack consisted of a roadside bomb detonated as a bus passed, and a suicide bombing. It took place near the Bab al-Saghir cemetery, which houses Shia mausoleums. Sunni militants often target Shias but attacks in the capital are uncommon. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Liberation of the Levant Organisation) is a new group formed from Jabhat Fateh alSham (previously al-Nusra Front) and four smaller factions. A nationwide truce in Syria, brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran, took eff ect on 30 December after talks in Kazakhstan, but sporadic attacks continue. Th ere have been two rounds of talks, with another planned next week. Damascus is mostly under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but rebel groups are present in outlying districts of the city.

In January, a double suicide bombing in the Kafr Sousa district of the capital killed at least 10 people. Th e thennamed said it was behind that attack. Th e group is excluded from the peace talks and its mainly north-western bases have been regularly targeted by the Syrian army and its Russian allies. So-called Islamic State is another Sunni extremist group that controls signifi cant areas of Syria.

Its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul is currently under attack from Iraqi government forces and their allies. More than 300,000 people have been killed and 11 million others displaced since the uprising against President Assad began in March 2011
Coordinated suicide bombings and shootings carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in As-Suwayda, Syria, kill 215 people and injure more than 200 others.