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SDF says Syria's Raqqa hit by mine blast, not suicide attack

April 3, 2019 at 7:12 pm

US forces and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) patrol the Kurdish-held town of Al-Darbasiyah in northeastern Syria bordering Turkey on 4 November 2018 [DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images]

A blast in Syria’s Raqqa on Wednesday that wounded people was caused by an unexploded mine left by Islamic State going off, not by suicide attacks, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said, Reuters reports.

The head of the SDF’s media office Mustafa Bali told journalists in an online message that earlier information it provided about suicide bombings in the city, captured from IS in 2017, was wrong.

A string of bombings have in recent months targeted the northeastern corner of Syria held by the SDF, even after its capture of the last Islamic State enclave in the area.

The SDF drove Islamic State from Raqqa in 2017 but the fierce military campaign there, including intensive air strikes from a US-led coalition, left much of the city in ruins.

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