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Global

Suicide truck bomb targets Kurdish security agency in Syria


    BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber set off a truck bomb outside offices of a Kurdish security agency in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

    The attack in northeastern city of Qamishli near the Turkish border hit a headquarters of the Asayish, an internal Security (SECURITY.8)force set up by the autonomous Kurdish administration that runs large areas of northern Syria.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the war, said at least 11 people were killed and another 29 wounded. A Kurdish official put the initial death toll at 10 civilians and two members of the Asayish.

    An Islamic State statement named the suicide bomber as Abu Mohamed al-Ansari and said he had detonated a tanker truck.

    Kurdish security forces in northern Syria have emerged as a major partner in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State, and have seized wide areas of territory from the jihadist group this year, backed by U.S.-led air strikes.

    (Reporting by Tom Perry and Naline Malla in Beirut and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Editing by Andrew Heavens)