Double bomb blasts kill 20 in Syria's Hasakeh

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) At least 20 people were killed on Monday in two car bomb attacks in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh, state television reported.

The broadcaster said they were killed in a blast in the Mahata neighbourhood of the city that followed a first blast in Khashman district.

State news agency SANA gave different tolls for the blasts, which it said were suicide car bombs.

The agency said five people were killed in Khashman and 12 in Mahata, and also reported that least 70 others had been wounded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said the two explosions were suicide car bombs, although it could not immediately confirm a toll.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the first blast hit a checkpoint belonging to the Kurdish security forces in Khashman, while the second struck the headquarters of a pro-regime militia in Mahata.

Control of Hasakeh city - and other parts of the province by the same name - is divided between Kurdish militia and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

The city has regularly been targeted by the Islamic State group, which controls some territory in Hasakeh province.

The group entered the city and seized several neighbourhoods in June, but was expelled a month later after battles involving both regime troops and Kurdish fighters.