10 killed, 20 wounded in twin Daesh car bombing in Syria’s Raqqa

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group reporting on anti-government operations in Syria, said late on Saturday that half of those killed in the city of Raqqa were members of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who were caught in a major car bombing at the city’s al-Naim square.

It said several people had been wounded in a separate car bombing in another part of Raqqa where Daesh has been launching recurrent attacks over the past months.

Raqqa, the former de facto capital of Daesh in Syria, has been controlled by SDF forces since October 2017.

The SDF, which also includes many Arab militants on its ranks, has been backed by the United States in an alleged mission to purge Daesh and other militant groups from areas in north and northeastern Syria.

The group is also busy fighting Turkish military and its associated militants as Ankara sees Kurdish militants in Syria as an extension of militancy inside its own territories.

Daesh has been almost purged from entire territories it used to control in Syria and neighboring Iraq. However, sporadic attacks by the group are still reported in the two countries.

The terrorist group launched a double car bombing in April in Raqqa, killing a total of 13 people.

Syria, gripped by a militant war since 2011 that has left hundreds of thousands killed, has managed to take back control of many territories from Daesh and other terrorist groups. The devastating war has also displaced millions of people inside the Arab country and into other places.