Car bomb kills 20 near anti-IS base in Syria

BEIRUT: A car bomb on Thursday killed 20 people including 14 oil workers near a base used by US-backed forces battling the Islamic State (IS) group in east Syria, a war monitor said. “The car bomb was detonated remotely in the village of Shheel” close to an oil field acting as a base for the Syrian Democratic Forces forces fighting IS, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Six conscripts from the Kurdish-led SDF were also killed as they escorted the workers in vehicles from the Omar oil field, it said.

Top French jihadist Fabien Clain killed in Syria: A top French IS jihadist who became notorious after voicing an audio recording claiming responsibility for the November 2015 attacks in Paris has been killed in an overnight airstrike, security sources told AFP. Fabien Clain, who is believed to have gone to Syria in March 2015 after being involved in recruiting volunteers for IS to fight in Iraq, was killed in the terror group’s last Syrian redoubt, the sources said on condition of anonymity.