The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 people were maimed in the kaboom that hit a restaurant frequented by foreign jihadists, including Europeans and Uzbeks. At least five imported muscle were among those killed in the blast, but their nationalities are not known, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
He said jihadists had tried to open fire on the jacket wallah, who still managed to detonate his boom belt inside the restaurant.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Abdel Rahman said the bomber was believed to be a member of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group. IS is known to have sleeper cells in the area.
Idlib is held by an alliance led by Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
-- a grouping that opposes IS.HTS took administrative control of the whole of the region last month, after overpowering smaller factions that are backed by
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
Idlib has been protected from a massive offensive by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
's regime since September, thanks to a buffer zone deal agreed by Damascus' ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey.
But it has been hit by sporadic government shelling.
Eight years into a multi-faceted conflict that has killed more than 360,000 people, Syria's government has wrested back large swathes of territory to control around two-thirds of the country.