Five dead in suicide bombings in Kurdish Syrian city

At least seven people were killed on Tuesday in a triple suicide bomb attack at a hotel in the Kurdish Syrian city of Qamishli, an NGO said, updating an earlier toll.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three suicide bombers blew themselves up at the Hadaya hotel in Qamishli, killing seven people including four women.

The attack on the Hadaya hotel was also reported by state news agency SANA, which said at least five people were killed.

A Kurdish activist from the city told AFP that the hotel was being used by the Kurdish “Asayesh” security forces, but there was no immediate confirmation or information on whether security forces were among the killed.

Qamishli is Syria’s biggest Kurdish-majority city, and considered by the minority to be the capital of Hasakeh province in the country’s northeast.

Syria’s regime has reached a fragile accommodation with the country’s Kurds, largely withdrawing its troops from areas where they are a majority to focus its efforts on fighting the uprising.

In return, the Kurds have tried to prevent opposition fighters from embroiling their areas in the conflict, often raising their ire and accusations they are collaborating with the regime.

The minority, which was long discriminated against by the government, has used the crisis to build autonomous institutions in Kurdish-minority areas, including security forces and local councils.

But it has come under fierce attack from some parts of the opposition, particularly jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

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