Coalition raids kill 23 in Syria; Twin blasts claim 26 lives in Iraq

“The raids hit the village of Al-Matab after midnight and were likely carried out by the coalition,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory earlier reported a toll of 14 people killed. At least eight children and six women were among the dead in Al-Matab, held by the Islamic State group.

The village lies near a key road linking Raqa — IS’s de facto capital — to Deir Ezzor city, the capital of the adjacent oil-rich province. On Monday, fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces cut off that route in a bid to encircle the jihadists in Raqa. The US-led coalition has been backing the SDF’s drive for Raqa with air power and hundreds of special operations forces as advisers. The profusion of forces operating in Syria complex battlefield and tensions between different parties.

A twin suicide bombing struck a village wedding north of Baghdad as the wedding party gathered in the evening hours, killing at least 26 people and wounding dozens, a government spokesman said on Thursday. The attack, which took place late Wednesday, began when one suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden belt walked into the wedding party assembled in an open area in Hajaj, near the city of Tikrit, about 130 kilometres from Baghdad. The bomber detonated his explosives, only to be followed by the second attacker who blew himself up when people had gathered to help the victims of the first explosion, provincial spokesman Ali al-Hamdani said. He said 26 people were killed, most of them children, and upto 67 were wounded. Meanwhile, IS group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is reported to have abandoned Mosul, leaving local commanders behind to lead the battle against Iraqi forces advancing in the city.