Suicide attackers strike people quitting ISIS's last Syria zone
Three suicide attackers in women’s clothing killed six
people leaving the last ISIS enclave in eastern Syria on Friday in simultaneous
blasts, the US-backed forces besieging the area said, according to Reuters.
The attack appears to be the first to target the many
thousands of people who have poured out of the enclave at Baghouz over the five
weeks since the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began an offensive there.
People fleeing the area have included surrendering ISIS
fighters, their family members, other supporters of the group, civilians caught
up in the conflict and captives of the jihadists.
The SDF and the US-led coalition that supports it have
described the remaining ISIS fighters holed up in Baghouz as being the group’s
most hardened foreign militants.
During the battle for the enclave, they have hidden in
tunnels, deployed suicide attackers to strike advancing SDF troops and
detonated car bombs.
An SDF spokesman, Mustafa Bali, said the attacks had
targeted surrendering family members of ISIS militants at three crossing points
from the enclave into SDF-controlled territory.
Three SDF fighters were slightly injured and it was not yet
known if the attackers were women or men in women’s clothing, Bali added.
A witness said three women had carried out the attack at the
corridor through which people were surrendering to the SDF.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring
group based in Britain, said two women had carried out suicide blasts.
