SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A car bomb detonated near a Russia military base in northeastern Syria on Friday (January 1), a war monitor said.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two men parked an explosive-laden pickup truck outside the base and fled, according to AFP.
“It is the first such direct attack against a Russian base in northeastern Syria,” AFP quoted Observatory chief Rami Abdulrahman as saying.
The observatory reported several wounded in the attack after midnight in the Tal Saman area in Raqqa province.
AFP reported that Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack.
There was no immediate Russian report of the incident, which occurred in a broader area controlled by Kurdish-led forces. Syrian and Russian troops are also present in the area.
Hurras al-Deen has fighters in the country’s last major rebel bastion in the northwestern region of Idlib, but very rarely operates outside that area.
Russia entered Syria’s war in 2015, and its air force has backed Damascus regime forces in several deadly military campaigns against Idlib.
