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Car Bomb Targets Former IS Stronghold in Syria

Sirwan Kajjo

   A powerful explosion on Wednesday rocked a town in northeast Syria,
   local sources told VOA.
   The car bomb attack, whichtook place on a main street near the center
   of Tabqa, wounded at least two security personnel and one civilian, the
   sources said.
   "There are definitely more casualties, but we don't have any details
   yet as local security forces have blocked the entire area," a
   Tabqa-based aid worker who requested anonymity for security reasons
   told VOA.
   No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the
   Islamic State terror group has carried out similar attacks in the past
   against U.S.-backed forces in the town and elsewhere in northeast
   Syria.

   Taken by SDF
   Tabqa, which is administratively part of Raqqa province, was under IS
   rule from 2014 until 2017, when U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces
   took control of the town.
   "The city has been secured since we liberated it from [IS] terrorists,"
   an SDF commander, who declined to be identified because he was not
   authorized to speak to reporters, told VOA."But these occasional
   incidents are expected as [IS] still has sleeper cells throughout the
   region."

   SDF officials said they had arrested members of IS-affiliated sleeper
   cells in two northern Syrian cities this week.
   "Counterterrorism units arrested five members of Daesh's sleeper cells
   in two separate successful raids in Raqqa and Manbij countryside," SDF
   spokesman Mustafa Bali said Wednesday in a tweet, using the Arabic
   acronym for IS.
   Earlier this week, IS took responsibility for a motorcycle explosion
   that wounded at least five civilians in the Kurdish-majority city of
   Qamishli in northeast Syria.

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