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Car bombs kill at least six in Syrian camp near Jordan border

Car bombs kill at least six in Syrian camp near Jordan border

By REUTERS

AMMAN: Two car bombs killed at least six people and wounded several others in Syria's sprawling Rukban refugee camp near the border with Jordan late on Monday, a rebel official and a resident said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State militant group. One explosion was near a restaurant and the second targeted the camp's market nearby, they said. 'There are at least six civilians dead and the number is expected to rise,' said Mohammad Adnan, a rebel official from Jaish Ahrar al-Ashair who runs the policing of the camp. Islamic State said in a statement on its Amaq news agency its fighters 'carried out the Rukban camp attack', according to the US-based SITE monitoring group. It gave no further details. In January, a car bomb killed a number of people in the camp, and Islamic State militants have since launched attacks on Syrian rebels in the area. Rukban, near the joint Syria-Iraq-Jordan border, is home to refugees and also to rebel groups, including the Jaish Ahrar al-Ashair, which fight both President Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State movement. It was also hit by bomb attacks last year.