IS bombs in north-east Syria kill 26 civilians

A series of Islamic State group bombings in north-east Syrian have killed 26 civilians and wounded at least 120, a monitoring group said on Friday.

The attacks took place in a residential area of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh province, which is controlled by Kurdish security forces, killing a number of fighters - although no official number has yet been given.

Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the attacks took place on Thursday evening, and that a second blast occurred outside a hospital killing a doctor. The third bomb hit a vegetable market.

Many of the wounded were taken over the border to Turkey for treatment.

The blasts ripped through buildings, trapping people under the rubble.

IS claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement posted on social media.

They said that three of its members detonated vehicles packed with explosives.

The group claimed that 60 people had been killed and dozens injured.

Tal Tamr, in the Khabur region, is controlled by Kurdish forces. 

It has been targeted in the past by IS, including in February, when IS fighters overran much of the region and kidnapped at least 220 Assyrian Christians.

Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) subsequently recaptured the area but were unable to free the Christians.

Dozens of the hostages have been released in recent months and on Wednesday, some 25 Assyrians, including two children, were freed by IS, according to the Assyrian Human Rights Network.

Elsewhere, the Observatory said at least 12 people, seven of them children, were killed in rebel fire on government-held parts of Aleppo city in the past 24 hours.

This week, rebels have stepped up fire into western Aleppo, killing dozens.

Once the country's economic hub, Aleppo has been ravaged by fighting and control of the city is divided between the regime in the west and the rebels in the east.

Regime and Russian war planes regularly carry out deadly raids on the eastern rebel-held portion of the city.