\n\nBEIRUT \u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten people were killed and 20 wounded Saturday in a suicide car bomb attack in Ragqa, a former stronghold of the Islamic State group in north Syria, a rights watchdog said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The explosion killed five civilians and five soldiers of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by Washington that wrested the city from IS in October 2017, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attack, for which no one immediately claimed responsibility, was preceded by a bomb explosion that left several people wounded in another part of the city frequently targeted by IS, the observatory said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The car bomb attack was targeting an SDF position,” observatory director Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP. The explosion took place at the al-Naim square where IS had carried out beheadings when it was in control of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On April 9, a double bombing claimed by IS killed 13 people, mostly civilians, in the jihadist group’s former bastion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IS jihadists seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” in areas it controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several offensives with U.S.-led coalition backing chipped away at the “caliphate” until it was declared eliminated on March 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ambushes and hit-and-run attacks have continued in both countries, with IS jihadists still scattered in the Syrian desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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source : voanews.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BEIRUT — Ten people were killed and 20 wounded Saturday in a suicide car bomb attack in Ragqa, a former stronghold of the Islamic State group in north Syria, a<\/p>\n