Blast in camp for displaced Syrians near Jordan kills 4
BEIRUT (AP) - A large explosion rocked a camp for displaced Syrians along the Syrian-Jordanian border Saturday, killing at least four, and wounding many others, opposition activists and a resident said.
Badr Abu Sultan, a resident of the Rukban camp, said the explosion was caused by a suspected car bomb in a local market. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion caused a huge cloud of smoke over the area. A video posted by the Syrian Media Organization also showed some tents burning, as parts of the car bomb were scattered across the camp.
A Jordanian military official told the official Jordanian Petra news agency said the explosion inside Syrian territory was caused by a small truck. He ruled out that any Jordanians were injured.
Jordan has been on edge since a car bomb attack last year launched from Rukban killed seven Jordanian border guards. Jordan then sealed the border, cutting off vital aid to 75,000 Syrians stranded in the area.
"There was a powerful explosion at the beginning of the market," Abu Sultan, a member of a tribal council in the camp, told The Associated Press, adding that the market is located at the entrance to the camp. "It was a car bomb."
Abu Sultan said two men, a woman and a child were killed and at least 12 were wounded. The Observatory, which has a network of activists on the ground, put the death toll at seven, including a man, his wife and two children. The Observatory said some of the wounded were in critical condition.
The Jordanian official said 14 wounded were admitted to the Jordanian health center at the border which is used to treat Syrian refugees.
The camp houses a local militia targeted in the past by rival factions in Syria's war. Another opposition activist network, the Palmyra Coordination group, said the explosion hit a checkpoint for a local militia near the market. The group said two of the victims have been identified as displaced.
The displaced Syrians live in makeshift camps between two parallel earthen barriers, or berms, that mark the Jordanian-Syrian frontier.
Meanwhile on Saturday, The Russian military said that six of its long-range bombers have struck Islamic State positions in Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria. The raid came as Syrian government troops in Deir el-Zour found themselves in an increasingly difficult situation, cut in half in an ongoing IS offensive against the last remaining pockets of government control.
The extremist group controls most of the province, except for the provincial capital and a nearby air base, and the offensive which began earlier this month is described as the group's most intense in a year.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that six Tu-22M3 bombers flew from their base in Russia to strike IS facilities Deir el-Zour province on Saturday. It said they successfully hit all designated targets, including the militants' camps, weapons locations and ammunition depots.
Activists in Deir el-Zour say amid intense shelling from Russian, Syrian and coalition jets and fighting on the ground, civilians are fleeing.
Russian fighter jets from Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia provided cover for the bombers, according to the ministry.
Russia has conducted an air campaign in Syria since September 2015, helping Syrian government forces to reverse the tide of the nearly six-year conflict.
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Associated Press writers Dominique Soguel in Istanbul, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.