In Pictures

Gallery|Humanitarian Crises

Syria’ civil war: Carnage in Qamishli

At least 50 people killed as two explosions strike a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria.

Qamishli Attacks
People look for survivors under debris at a damaged site after two bomb blasts claimed by ISIL hit the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli near the Turkish border. [Rodi Said/Reuters]
Published On 27 Jul 2016

A twin bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has killed at least 50 people and wounded many more in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, near the Turkish border.

The attack, which hit near a Kurdish security forces headquarters, was the deadliest of its kind in the city for years, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

More than 280,000 people are estimated to have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed, according to the Observatory. Efforts to negotiate a lasting ceasefire have collapsed time and again.

More than 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees displaced from their homeland, while more than 6.5 million people are internally displaced within the country’s borders.

Qamishli Attacks
At least 50 people were killed in the blasts. [SANA/EPA]
Advertisement
Qamishli Attacks
ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that it targeted Kurdish security forces. [Rodi Said/Reuters]
Qamishli Attack
A woman mourns dead relatives at the damaged site. [Rodi Said/Reuters]
Qamishli Attacks
ISIL has targeted Qamishli and the provincial capital, Hasaka city, in the past with bombing attacks. A suicide blast killed six members of the Kurdish internal security force, known as the Asayish, in April. In July, an ISIL suicide bomb killed at least 16 people in Hasaka. [Rodi Said/Reuters]
Qamishli Attacks
The explosion was so powerful that it shattered the windows of shops in the Turkish town of Nusaybin, directly across the border. [Rodi Said/Reuters]
Qamishli Attacks
Syrians carry the body of a victim from a building damaged in the twin bombings. [SANA/AP]
Advertisement
Qamishli Attacks
The latest attack comes amid intense fighting in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, where more than 50 people have been killed in recent days. [Rodi Said/Reuters]
Qamishli Attacks
As the war drags on towards its sixth year, there is a renewed international push to restart the stalled Syria political talks next month. [Rodi Said/Reuters]