Beirut - At least 26 people were killed when Islamic State
militants blew up a booby-trapped car targeting a group of internally
displaced people in eastern Syria, a war monitor said on Friday.
The blast targeted the group near the Jafra oil field, north-east of
the city of Deir al-Zour, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.
The group comprised mainly civilians who had escaped their villages
located on the eastern banks of the Euphrates river.
The dead included 12 children, and dozens others were injured, the
Observatory said.
The state-run SANA news agency put the death toll at 20, and said
that 30 people were injured.
In September, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) managed to
recapture the Jafra oil field from Islamic State.
SDF fighters are vying with Russia-backed Syrian government forces to
capture Deir al-Zour, an oil-rich region near the Iraqi border that
has been under Islamic State control since 2014.
Most of the province of the same name has been mostly controlled by
Islamic State since 2014.