United Nations (UN) Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura (centre) looks on during a meeting on the second day of a new round of Syria peace talks in Geneva yesterday.
Beirut: An Islamic State car bomb killed more than 50 people yesterday in a Syrian village held by rebels, a war monitor said, a day after the jihadist group was driven from its last stronghold in the area.
The blast in the village of Sousian hit a security checkpoint controlled by rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army (FSA) banner. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor of the war based in Britain, said more than 50 people died including over 30 civilians. One of the two, a fighter with the Sultan Murad Brigade near Al Bab, said: “It was done on a checkpoint but there were a lot of families there gathered and waiting to get back to Al Bab. Therefore we have many civilian casualties.”
The Turkey-backed rebels drove Islamic State from the town of Al Bab on Thursday, following weeks of street battles near where Ankara wants to establish a safe zone for civilians. Turkey’s military said yesterday that Syrian rebels had taken full control of all of Al Bab, and that work to clear mines and unexploded ordnance was under way.
Sousian is behind rebel lines about 8km northwest of Al Bab, around which Ankara has long supported the formation of a security zone it says would help to stem a wave of migration via Turkey into Europe.
A second blast took place 2km south of Sousian, but it was unclear whether it was from a vehicle bomb. There were reports of casualties but no immediate details. Islamic State said in a social media posting that it was behind the Sousian attack, having acknowledged on Thursday it had lost control of Al Bab. Syria’s main conflict pits President Bashar Al Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shia militias, against rebels that include groups supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.
However, both those sides, as well as a group of militias led by Kurdish forces and supported by the US, are also fighting Islamic State, which holds large parts of northern and eastern Syria. As mines laid in and around Al Bab claimed lives for a second day, the Sultan Murad Brigade fighter said many IS cells were still operating there. “It is very dangerous. Our search and clear operation is still under way,” he said.
