Car bomb attack kills at least 26 in Syria, war monitor says

A car bombing blamed on Daesh killed at least 26 displaced people in eastern Syria on Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

The war monitor said that 12 children were among the victims of the attack on a gathering at a checkpoint run by US-backed militants of the YPG-dominated-SDF in Deir Ezzor province, where Daesh is losing ground to two separate offensives aimed at ousting it from Syria.

"Dozens of people were wounded, and the death toll could rise because of the number of serious injuries," said SHOR director Rami Abdel Rahman. 

The displaced people had been on their way to neighbouring Hasakeh province, where camps have been set up to house them in YPG-controlled territory, Abdel Rahman said.

Daesh battling for survival 

Daesh controls roughly one quarter of oil-rich Deir Ezzor province but is battling for survival on two fronts.

One offensive against it is by Syrian regime forces backed by Russian air power, while the second is by YPG.

Daesh group is now cornered in part of Deir Ezzor province around the border town of Abu Kamal on the frontier with Iraq, and many civilians have been trying to flee the affected areas.

The group seized large areas of both Syria and Iraq in a lightning 2014 campaign, but has this year seen its self-proclaimed "caliphate" crumble as it came under multiple offensives.