Two bomb blasts claimed by ISIS hit the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli near the Turkish border on Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and wounding 170 others, state television reported.
It said one of the bombs exploded near a security headquarters of the Kurdish administration that controls most of Hasaka province, where Qamishli is located.
State TV said a truck loaded with large quantities of explosives blew up on Wednesday on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, followed by an explosives-packed motorcycle a few minutes later in the same area.
It rolled footage purportedly from the scene of one blast, showing large-scale damage to buildings, vast amounts of rubble strewn across the road and plumes of smoke rising. Rescue teams are reportedly working to recover victims from under the rubble.
One explosion was so powerful it shattered the windows of shops in the Turkish town of Nusaybin, directly across the border. Two people were slightly hurt in Nusaybin, a witness said.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had targeted Kurdish security forces.
The jihadist group, which is fighting against the Kurdish YPG militia and its allies in Hasaka and Aleppo provinces, has targeted Qamishli and the provincial capital, Hasaka city, in the past with bombing attacks.
A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an ISIS suicide bomb killed at least 16 people in Hasaka.
The YPG captured large areas of territory from ISIS in northeastern Syria last year and is involved in a U.S.-backed offensive that has advanced against the jihadists further west near the Turkish border.
haaretz.com
