The death toll from a deadly ISIS suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding party in northeast Syria has risen to 36, a UK-based monitoring group said Tuesday.
Eleven women and children were among the dead in Monday’s attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that at least 80 people were injured, 16 of them seriously.
The blast occurred inside a wedding hall in Tal Tawil, a village near the city of Hasaka which is under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces, SOHR said, citing sources.
The groom was among those killed, SOHR founder Rami Abdulrahman said.
Kurdish forces are playing a key role in fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement that was posted on Twitter and retweeted by several ISIS supporters. The statement said an ISIS suicide bomber ambushed a Kurdistan Workers’ Party gathering on the outskirts of Hasaka with a machine gun, and after he ran out of ammunition, the attacker blew up his explosive vest among the “PKK apostates.”
The attack came as the United States announced it is suspending bilateral talks with Russia amid continued bloodshed in Syria.
Citing a recent spate of attacks by Russia and its Syrian regime allies on hospitals and other civilian areas in Aleppo, the United States accused Moscow of failing to uphold a ceasefire and trying “to bomb civilian populations into submission,” and in the process, preventing humanitarian aid from reaching people in need.
Government forces now control the strategic area around al-Kindi Hospital in northern Aleppo, pro-regime media and activists said, strengthening their push toward the rebel-held eastern part of the city.
The past week’s assault on rebel-held areas of the key city involved some of the worst violence since the start of the war in 2011. Sunday, the Syrian military called on rebels to leave the besieged eastern areas of Aleppo, saying the Syrian and Russian armies “guarantee their safety,” according to a statement from the Syrian Armed Forces.
Terrorist groups including ISIS have taken advantage of country’s instability to mount their own attacks.
