BEIRUT — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing in a northwestern Syrian village that killed at least 20 people, including many Turkey-backed opposition fighters.

The IS-linked Aamaq news agency says a suicide car bomber struck a convoy of rebels on the Syrian side of a border crossing point in the village of Atmeh.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens. An activist collective in Idlib province known as Ariha Today put the death toll at 24.

Syrian activists have raised the death toll from an explosion in a northwestern village near the border with Turkey to at least 20 killed, including Turkey-backed rebels.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blast in Atmeh on Thursday morning was either caused by a suicide bomber or a remotely detonated bomb. Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, says the blast was caused by a bag filled with explosives that went off on the Syrian side of a border crossing.

An activist collective in Idlib province known as Ariha Today says the blast killed 24.

The Observatory says the killed rebels have been fighting along with Turkish forces against the Islamic State group since August.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack. </s> IS claims bombing of Syrian rebels near Turkey that killed 20

BEIRUT — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing in a northwestern Syrian village that killed at least 20 people, including many Turkey-backed opposition fighters.

The IS-linked Aamaq news agency says a suicide car bomber struck a convoy of rebels on the Syrian side of a border crossing point in the village of Atmeh.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens. An activist collective in Idlib province known as Ariha Today put the death toll at 24.

The Observatory says the killed rebels have been fighting along with Turkish forces against the Islamic State group since August. </s> Image copyright LCC Image caption Opposition judicial officials and a rebel commander were reportedly among the dead

At least 29 people, most of them rebel fighters, have been killed in a bombing near Syria's border with Turkey, activists say.

The attack reportedly occurred during a change of guard at the rebel-controlled Atmeh crossing, in Idlib province.

It was not immediately clear whether the blast was caused by a suicide bomber or a remote-controlled device.

A news agency linked to so-called Islamic State (IS) said a suicide car bombing had targeted a rebel convoy.

But an opposition activist network, the Local Co-ordination Committees, reported that a suitcase filled with explosives had been planted at the scene.

In mid-August, 32 rebels were killed in a suicide attack claimed by IS at the Atmeh crossing, which they use to travel from Idlib, via Turkey, to battle the jihadist group in other parts of north-eastern Syria.

The LCC reported that 30 people had been killed and 40 others wounded in Thursday morning's attack, while the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 29.

Photographs and videos purportedly of the aftermath showed the bloodied bodies of more than 20 men, some of them wearing camouflage trousers.

Turkey's deputy prime minister called the attack a "crime against humanity".

The president of the Higher Judicial Council in the rebel-held east of the nearby city of Aleppo, Sheikh Khaled al-Sayyed, its attorney-general Mohammed Faraj, and a field commander of the rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, Husham Khalifa, were among those killed, the LCC said. But most of the victims were Faylaq al-Sham fighters.

The rebel faction is participating in a Turkish-led offensive against IS militants and Kurdish fighters along another stretch of border, 60km (37 miles) to the north-east.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption A Turkish-backed rebel offensive is targeting IS strongholds along another stretch of the border

The rebels - assisted by Turkish warplanes, tanks and artillery - quickly seized the former IS stronghold of Jarablus in late August and are now heading towards Dabiq.

The small town holds great symbolic value to jihadists as it is named in Islamic apocalyptic prophecies as the site of an end-of-times showdown between Muslims and their "Roman" enemies - a term IS has now expanded to include the US and its allies.

BBC Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen says Thursday's attack by IS highlights the danger of the mission - Turkey's biggest offensive in Syria since the country's war began in 2011.

Ankara says it will push on with Operation Euphrates Shield, hoping to create a de facto buffer zone close to its vulnerable border, to where some of the 1.5 million Syrian refugees sheltering in Turkey could return. </s> At least 29 people, all believed to be rebels, were killed and around 20 others wounded in an explosion near Syria's border with Turkey on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British monitoring group, said the blast took place during change of guard at the rebel-controlled Atmeh crossing. Officials are verifying whether the explosion was triggered by a suicide bomber or a device. Syria-based Local Coordination Committees said the blast was triggered by a explosives-laden bag planted near the border.

The fatalities included the head of the top civil judicial body in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Sheikh Khaled al-Sayyed, and a judge who worked with him, according to Reuters. A witness said that a majority of the deceased were associated with the Failaq al-Sham group, which has been collaborating with Turkish-backed factions known as the "Euphrates Shield". The Turkish government told BBC that it will continue its offensive, with the aim to create a de facto buffer zone close to its vulnerable border.

The Islamic State group considers Atmeh a priority location because Islamic prophecies say it is the site of an end-of-times battle between Muslims and their "Roman rivals" – a term the extremist group has now expanded to include the Unite States and its allies, BBC reported.

In August, at least 32 rebels were killed in an Islamic State group-planned blast at the Atmeh crossing. Rebels use the point to travel from Syria's Idlib via Turkey to challenge the terror outfit. More than three lakh people have died in the six-year-long civil war in Syria, and nearly half the country's population was forced to flee since it began. While the US supports rebel groups, Russia is seen as a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. </s> An explosion of unknown origin at a weapons depot Sunday in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 69 civilians including 17 children, in addition to scores of injuries.

Mustafa Hajj Yusuf, the head of Idlib Civil Defense, earlier acknowledged the death toll at least as 39 dead and 45 injured. He later told Anadolu Agency that search and rescue operation was concluded as of Monday morning and 17 civilians, mostly women and children, were pulled under the rubble. The number of the injured stands at 50.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed the casualty toll on Monday.

An AFP correspondent at the site in the opposition-held town of Sarmada near the Turkish border said the explosion caused two buildings to collapse.

On Sunday morning, rescue workers used a bulldozer to remove rubble and extract trapped people, the correspondent said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, earlier said the death toll could rise as dozens were still missing.

"The explosion occurred in a weapons depot in a residential building in Sarmada," the head of the Britain based monitor said. But the cause of the blast was "not yet clear", Abdel Rahman added.

A rescue worker carried the motionless body of a small child from the wreckage to an ambulance, the AFP correspondent said.

Behind mounds of rubble, the facade of a building was scorched black, due to a fire after the blast.

A civil defense source told AFP that women and children were among the dead.

But rescue workers had pulled out "five people who were still alive", the source said.

Most of Idlib is controlled by Turkish backed opposition fighters, while parts of it are controlled by terrorist groups led by al-Qaida linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but the Daesh terror group also has sleeper cells in the area.

In recent months, a series of explosions and assassinations -- mainly targeting opposition officials and fighters -- have rocked the province.

While some attacks have been claimed by Daesh, most are the result of infighting since last year between various other groups.

In recent days, regime forces have ramped up their deadly bombardment of southern Idlib and sent reinforcements to nearby areas they control.

Bashar al-Assad has warned that regime forces intend to retake Idlib, after his regime regained control of swathes of opposition held territory elsewhere.

Around 2.5 million people live in the province, half of them displaced by fighting in other parts of the country.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's civil war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. </s> A fuel truck exploded in the busy centre of a rebel-held town near Syria's border with Turkey on Saturday, killing dozens of people and wounding dozens more, several sources said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 43 people, mostly civilians, were killed when the tanker blew up in front of a courthouse in the northern Syrian town of Azaz. Dozens more had severe injuries, said the Observatory, which monitors the violence in the country.

In unsourced comments, Turkey's privately-owned Dogan news agency said a car bomb planted by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the militant group.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency cited a doctor in Azaz as saying at least 60 people had been killed and more than 50 wounded. An Azaz resident who went to the local hospital told Reuters he had counted around 30 bodies laid out.

Syria's nearly six-year war has create a patchwork of areas of control across the country, and Azaz is a major stronghold of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The FSA is an alliance of rebel groups whose fighters have, with Turkish military support, pushed ISIS militants out of the border area.

Saturday's explosion was heard across the border in the Turkish town of Kilis, Dogan said. Anadolu said 23 wounded people had been taken by ambulance to Kilis hospital, one of whom subsequently died.

In a round-up of its military operations over the last 24 hours in support of rebels in northern Syria, the Turkish military said on Saturday that 21 ISIS militants had been killed in clashes. Turkish warplanes destroyed buildings and vehicles in air strikes on 12 ISIS targets, it said. </s> BEIRUT — An explosion outside an office belonging to an al Qaeda-linked group in the country’s northwestern on Friday killed at least 11 people and wounded several others, opposition activists said.

The blast comes a week after members of the al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, or HTS, took over control of wide parts of Idlib province and the surrounding countryside after forcing rival insurgents to accept a deal for a civil administration run by HTS in their areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Smart news agency, an activist collective, said the blast occurred on the southern edge of the rebel-held city of Idlib.

The Observatory said 11 people were killed in the blast, including seven HTS members. Smart said 12 people were killed, many of them militants.

In the country’s east, an air strike in the last area held by the Islamic State killed at least 20 people in the village of Baghouz, according to the state news agency SANA. The Observatory said 23 people were killed including 10 Islamic State members.

They both blamed the U.S.-led coalition that has been providing air cover to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in their months-long offensive to capture the area from extremists near the Iraqi border.

Meanwhile in Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan met with U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to discuss the situation in Syria as the United States prepares to withdraw troops.

Graham, a prominent voice on foreign affairs in the U.S., met with Erdogan and other Turkish officials Friday for talks that were also expected to include a proposal for the creation of a “safe zone” in northeast Syria.

The visit comes days after a suicide bombing, claimed by Islamic State, killed two U.S. service members and two American civilians in the northeastern town of Manbij. </s> A fuel truck exploded in the busy centre of a rebel-held town near Syria's border with Turkey on Saturday, killing dozens of people and wounding dozens more, several sources said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 43 people, mostly civilians, were killed when the tanker blew up in front of a courthouse in the northern Syrian town of Azaz.

Dozens more had severe injuries, said the Observatory, which monitors the violence in the country.

In unsourced comments, Turkey's privately owned Dogan news agency said a car bomb planted by Islamic State was responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the militant group.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency cited a doctor in Azaz as saying at least 60 people had been killed and more than 50 wounded. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Residential buildings in the rebel-held city of Idlib were badly damaged by the explosion

At least 40 people have reportedly been killed in an explosion and a series of air strikes across the rebel-held north Syrian province of Idlib.

The blast, on Sunday night outside the headquarters of the Islamist rebel faction Ajnad al-Qawqaz in the city of Idlib, left 25 people dead.

The cause was not clear but many believed a car bomb was responsible.

Activists say another 15 people were killed in Syrian government and Russian air strikes elsewhere on Sunday.

The attacks came as the Syrian military announced they had recaptured the strategically important town of Sinjar in south-eastern Idlib.

Troops are advancing towards Abu al-Zuhour airbase, about 14km (nine miles) away, which rebels captured when they seized control of most of the province in 2015.

The large explosion in the centre of the provincial capital damaged several buildings and destroyed vehicles parked on Thalatheen Street.

The Syria Civil Defence, whose rescue workers are known as the White Helmets, says four children and 11 women were among the 25 people killed.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Rescue workers rushed to the scene on Sunday night and pulled victims from the rubble

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, put the death toll at 34, including 19 civilians. Other fatalities are believed to have been members of Ajnad al-Qawqaz, it said.

In the rebel faction are many foreign fighters from the Caucasus and Russia and it is allied with Hayat Tahir al-Sham, a jihadist force linked to al-Qaeda.

The Syrian Observatory attributed the explosion to a car bomb or drone strike.

Rebel-held areas outside the city were also reportedly subjected to deadly air strikes on Sunday:

Eleven members of the same family were killed in a raid on the town of Jarjanaz, 35km to the south-east, according to the Syrian Observatory. The pro-opposition Edlib Media Center said witnesses had identified the aircraft as Russian

The Syria Civil Defence said a father and his son had also been killed and four other members of their family wounded in a strike on the town of Kansafra, 32km south-west of Idlib city

Air strikes reportedly continued across Idlib on Monday. Jarjanaz was targeted again, along with the town of Saraqeb, the Edlib Media Center says.

Idlib, which borders Turkey to the north, is home to an estimated 2.5 million people, including one million who have fled other rebel-held parts of Syria in recent years.

The UN says fighting and air strikes inside Idlib have forced more than 60,000 people to leave their homes since 1 November, and that they are in a "dire" situation.
A bombing in rebel controlled Atme, Idlib Governorate, near the Syria–Turkey border, kills at least 29 people, mostly rebel fighters, and injures dozens more. ISIL claims responsibility.