At least 26 people killed in northern Syria bombings claimed by ISIL

CAIRO/BEIRUT

REUTERS photo

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for triple bombings in northern Syria that killed at least 26 people.

ISIL said in a statement posted online that the attacks in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh’s town of Tal Tamr targeted offices of the main Kurdish militia known as YPG, the Associated Press reported.

Three of its fighters driving three separate vehicles blew themselves up targeting “bases” of Kurdish fighters in the town of Tel Tamr, killing 60 people, the group said in a statement posted online, Reuters reported.

A spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, Redur Xelil told Reuters via Internet messaging service that the death toll from the triple truck bomb attack last Dec. 10 had risen to 50 to 60 people, with more than 80 others wounded. 

One of the blasts occurred outside a hospital, another at a market and the third in a residential area in the YPG-controlled town of Tel Tamr, Xelil said. 

Syrian State TV and ISIL said on Dec. 11 that the blasts killed 60 people while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they killed 26, including four Assyrian Christians.

A statement on the website of Kurdish security force Asayish also blamed the attack on ISIL.

The YPG has been one of the best forces in fighting ISIL and have captured dozens of villages and towns over the past year from the extremists, including Tal Tamr.