Twin blasts in rebel-held Syrian city Idlib kill at least 15
AMMAN - Twin explosions in the bustling centre of the rebel-held northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on Monday killed at least 15 people and injured scores, medics and witnesses said.
They said an explosive device planted in a parked car detonated in a main street in the provincial capital. Many of the casualties were civil defence workers who reached the site moments before a second explosion nearby. That blast was attributed by some witnesses to a bomb rigged to a motorcyle.
Social media footage showed aid workers carrying away bodies and rescuing wounded civilians amid smouldering wreckage.
Idlib province, in Syria's northwest corner, is under the control of Hayat Tahrir al Sham, a bloc of Islamist militant factions spearheaded by Syria's former al Qaeda affiliate, and has long been targeted by bombings and assassinations.
Alliance commanders say they hundreds of people have been rounded up for suspected links to Syrian President Bashar al Assad's intelligence services or Islamic State sleeper cells who they blame for some of the bombings.
They say the wave of blasts in the densely populated region, a haven for tens of thousands of civilians opposed to Assad's rule, aims to destabilise the last opposition bastion remaining after almost eight years of civil war.
