Deadly Explosion in Qamishlo Christian neighborhood

QAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan (K24) – On Sunday, a blast targeting a Christian neighborhood killed three and injured 11 people in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishlo in northeast Syria.

A detonated explosive device was attached to a bicycle near a shop along Miami Street in Al-Wusta, a predominantly Christian neighborhood. The explosion largely impacted the Christian-owned Bab Al-Hara restaurant, killing three members of the Christian community (Bassam Koriya, Musa Khajo, and Fawzy Tooma), and wounding 11 others. The victims were transported to Al-Salam hospital, a K24 reporter near the scene said.

The General Command of Rojava Asayish (Syrian Kurdistan Security Forces) released a statement on Monday accusing a pro-regime militia of committing the attack.

“Based on information received from private sources, and after our initial investigation, we [Asayish] confirmed that the so-called National Defense Forces (NDF) of the Syrian regime are involved in the blast which happened in Al-Wusta neighborhood in Qamishlo,” the statement read.

This explosion comes less than one month after the Islamic State (IS) carried out deadly attacks in Al-Wusta, killing and wounding dozens of people.

It is also worth mentioning that after the initial attacks in late December, a pro-regime Christian militia known as Gozarto Protection Forces (GPF), set up several checkpoints around Al-Wusta in attempts to bolster security in the area.

This act led to clashes between GPF and People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces, who demanded the checkpoints be removed. The Kurdish YPG, are the military arm of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), currently administering Rojava.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat; Haybar Othman contributed to this report from Qamishlo; Editing by Benjamin Kweskin