Blast hits US-led coalition patrol in Syria

BEIRUT: A suicide attack claimed by the Islamic State group killed 16 people including a US servicemen Wednesday in the northern Syrian city of Manbij near the Turkish border, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group and a militia source said two Americans were among the dead, but Reuters was unable to independently confirm the death toll. The coalition said in a tweet it was still gathering information. An Islamic State-affiliated web site, Amaq, said a suicide attacker with an explosive vest had targeted a foreign military patrol. “Suicide attacker Abu Yassin al-Shami wearing an explosive vest set off towards a patrol including members of the Crusader coalition and the PKK apostates near the Palace of Princes restaurant in the city of Manbij,” a statement posted on the group’s usual social media channels said. Witnesses described the “explosion hit near a restaurant, targeting the Americans, and there were some forces for the Manbij Military Council with them”. The Manbij Military Council militia has controlled the town since U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces took it from Islamic State in 2016. It is located near areas held by Russian-backed Syrian government forces and by anti-Assad fighters backed by Turkey.

One of the witnesses said there was a “heavy” presence of military aircraft over Manbij following the blast, which took place near a vegetable market. Photographs on a local Kurdish news site, which Reuters could not verify, showed two mutilated bodies, several other bodies lying on the ground with people gathered around them, damage to a building and vehicles, and blood smears on a wall.

US-backed SDF will help create north Syria safe zone: The Syrian Democratic Forces said on Wednesday it was ready to help create a safe zone mentioned by U.S. President Donald Trump under “international guarantees” and without “foreign intervention” in north and east Syria.