Blast hits government checkpoint in Syria's Qamishlo

QAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan24) – On Tuesday, a deadly suicide attack hit a government checkpoint in the Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) city of Qamishlo.

A Kurdistan24 news member in Qamishlo reported that in the early morning of Tuesday, a suicide attack hit a Syrian government security checkpoint at the entrance of the Arab-majority Al-Tai neighborhood of Qamishlo.

According to an embedded Kurdistan24 reporter in Qamishlo, the Syrian government forces set up a security cordon around the blast site and prevented the media from approaching it.

Shivan Ali, a civil society activist, told Kurdistan24 that a landmine that had already been planted near a government checkpoint called Al-Awija exploded when a public vehicle passed over it. The driver is killed.

“Such explosions are expected to be fabricated by government securities to make it appear that not only Kurdish forces are targeted, but also the government forces are victims of attacks,” Ali said.

The last explosion to hit a government-held area in the city was about three years ago while several blasts have hit other Kurdish-controlled areas of the city.

Until the present moment, no parties have claimed responsibility for the explosion, and both authorities, Syrian government security and the Kurdish internal security (Asayish), could not be reached for comment.  

Qamishlo, in Hasakeh province, is under the shared control of the Syrian regime and Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing of People's Protection Units (YPG), who have declared zones of “autonomous administration” across parts of north and northeast Syria.

The YPG and PYD have often been accused by their rivals of supporting the Assad regime despite having engaged in clashes with Syrian security forces in the past.

The YPG has been the most effective partner on the ground in Syria for the US-led coalition that is fighting the Islamic State (IS). In October 2015, it became part of the new US-backed alliance, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany and Ava Homa