Islamic State targets Syria's Raqqa with car bomb, casualties reported

A car bomb explosion on Sunday killed and injured US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters and civilians in Raqqa city.

RAQQA (Kurdistan 24) – A car bomb explosion on Sunday killed and injured US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters and civilians in Raqqa city, local authorities said.

“A car bomb blasted in Al Basel Street in the downtown of Raqqa city,” the Kurdish-led, US-backed SDF said in a statement.

“The explosion resulted in the death of a civilian, injuring a number of civilians and military staff during the performance of their duty of maintaining the security of the city, and wounded were transferred to the city’s hospitals for treatment,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State (IS) said in a statement that it had detonated the bomb, targeting fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the leading element in the SDF that drove the militants from Raqqa last year.

The blast came a day after the assassination of a local council leader in the city, the former Syrian capital of the militant group’s self-declared caliphate, which SDF fighters seized a year ago.

On Friday, Bashir Faisal al-Huwaidi, one of the most prominent tribal leaders in the Syrian city of Raqqa, was assassinated in an attack IS claimed.

The SDF is battling the extremist group in one of their last patches of territory in Syria, along the north bank of the Euphrates River close to the Iraqi border.

Last week, the general command of the SDF announced a temporary halt to an offensive against IS after Turkish attacks targeted the SDF-affiliated forces’ positions in Kobani and Tal Abyad.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany