HASAKAH, Syria: A suicide bomber has struck a wedding in northeast Syria as the bride and groom were exchanging vows, killing 34 people and wounding dozens, the local Kurdish government said.
The bomber blew himself up late Monday in the village of Tall Tawil in Hasakah province where a Kurdish party official was getting married.
Daesh claimed the attack, saying that one of its members had fired on a gathering near Hasakah city before blowing himself up, though it did not mention a wedding.
Rows of seats in the hall that hosted the party were still covered in blood on Tuesday morning when an AFP photographer visited the scene.
Broken tiles littered the floor and torn fabric hung from the ceiling. A thick layer of dust covered a sound mixer and keyboard.
“As the bride and groom were exchanging their vows I saw a man wearing a thick black jacket pass beside me,” a witness named Ahmad said. “I thought he looked strange and a few seconds later there was an enormous explosion.
Wedding photographer Walid Mohammad said he was taking pictures of the party when he felt a huge explosion. “I saw so many people die — small kids, old people.”
The local Kurdish administration said 34 people had been killed and around 90 wounded, among them women and children.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor that relies on a network of sources inside the country, gave a higher toll of 36 dead including 11 children.
Both the groom and bride were safe, but the groom’s father and brother were killed in the attack, a relative told AFP.
“The groom’s wounds are light, and he and his new wife are staying at a relative’s home. He doesn’t want to see anyone,” he said.
“They are really shaken up by this.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein warned Russia on Tuesday over the use of incendiary weapons in Syria’s besieged enclave of eastern Aleppo, and said crimes by one side did not justify illegal acts by the other.
Zeid said the situation in Aleppo demanded bold new initiatives “including proposals to limit the use of the veto by the permanent members of the Security Council,” which would enable the UN body to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.
“Such a referral would be more than justified given the rampant and deeply shocking impunity that has characterized the conflict and the magnitude of the crimes that have been committed, some of which may indeed amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Zeid said in a statement.
Syria’s government and its allies had undertaken a “pattern of attacks” against targets with special protection under international humanitarian law, including medical units, aid workers and water-pumping stations, he said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US isn’t abandoning its pursuit of peace in Syria despite suspending US-Russian talks on a cease-fire.
But he didn’t outline any new strategy to replace efforts with the Russians. Kerry said Washington and Moscow would still discuss Syria as part of larger multilateral negotiations. But, Kerry said, the US is outraged that Russia has turned a blind eye to the Syrian government’s use of chlorine gas and barrel bombs.
He said Russia has rejected diplomacy and chosen to pursue a military victory over rebels.
Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit called for an “urgent cease-fire” in Aleppo to allow the flow of humanitarian aid to residents.
“What is happening in this city... is carnage,” Abul Gheit told an emergency meeting of representatives of the 22 members of the Cairo-based Arab League. Abul Gheit said due to this latest development Arab nations must try to secure an “urgent cease-fire” for Aleppo.
Turkey will make a proposal to revive the cease-fire deal and President Tayyip Erdogan may speak by telephone on the issue with US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogan’s spokesman said.
More on the fighting in Syria
Syrian national military fired on Tuesday a guided missile targeting a BMB vehicle of the armed groups in western countryside of Damascus, leaving all crew members killed and wounded.
Moreover, clashes erupted between the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group on one hand and the ‘Free Syrian Army’ (FSA) and allied terrorist groups on the other during ISIL advance in eastern Qalamoun in rural Damascus.
Both sides inflicted casualties.
In Daraa, FSA targeted on Monday the ISIL-held Al-Shajra town in the eastern countryside of the province by rocket projectiles, killing six people, including 3 children and 2 women, the opposition UK-based Observatory reported.
SANA said that an army unit clashed with terrorists in southern Daraa province leaving 20 of them killed, while the rest who survived fled away in Daraa al-Balad area.
Army and Armed Forces units launched Tuesday more military operations against the armed terrorist organizations in different areas across the country, eliminating a large number of their members and destroying their equipment.
In Deir Ezzor, Syrian military destroyed an ISIL vehicle with a heavy machine gun of 14.5 mm cannon by a guided missile south of the city. All crew members were left killed or wounded.
In Hasaka, ISIL claimed responsibility for an explosion that targeted a wedding hall in the city and killed 30 people and injured 90 others.
Moreover, a roadside bomb targeted a patrol for Kurdish Protection Units near Al Ghazal checkpoint east of the city.
Clashes also erupted between the “Democratic Syria Forces” and ISIL near the village of al-Azzawi, south of Shaddadi city in the countryside of southern Hasaka, amid exchange of fire between the two sides.
In Aleppo, a police source told SANA that rocket shells, fired by terrorists from the eastern neighborhoods of the city, targeted the citizens’ houses in New Aleppo and Seif al-Dawleh, injuring 5 civilians.
In Idlib, “Jund al-Aqsa” group executed a child named Rami, 13 years, in the city of Khan Shaykhun in the southern countryside over charges of “blasphemy.”
In Hama, the Syria Air Force destroyed tanks and vehicles equipped with machineguns belonging to “Jaish al-Fatah” terrorist organization in the villages of Um Hartain, Dahret al-Souda, al-Latamina, Souran, Maardes and Kafar Zita in the northern countryside of Hama province.
The Syrian Air Force destroyed a number of the terrorist organizations’ tanks and vehicles equipped with machineguns and artillery guns, killing a number of terrorists in al-Latameneh, Taybet al-Imam, and Maan in the northern countryside of Hama province, according to a military source.
In Homs, The so-called “Al-Sham Corps” group operating in north Homs said in a statement he joined “Homs Northern Countryside Operations Room.”
A military source told SANA that an Army and Armed Forces unit set an ambush for an armed terrorist group in Abu al-Anz Farms, east of Talbiseh in the northern countryside of Homs Province, which resulted in killing all members of the group.
Another army unit destroyed a number of vehicles belonging to ISIL terrorists and killed a number of them in the surroundings of al-Sawanieh in the eastern countryside of the province.
Source: Al-Manar Website |
Omar Suleiman
This was a statement by Egyptian Foreign Minister