IS bombings of restaurants in Syria kill 16

At least 16 people were killed and 30 wounded by explosions in three restaurants in the northeast of Syria on Wednesday, a monitoring group said, in attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

The explosions took place in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli, near the Turkish border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the bombs went off in restaurants in the city centre near a security point run by government troops.

At least one of the blasts in the city of Qamishli, in the Hassakeh province, was caused by a suicide bomber in a restaurant in a Christian neighbourhood.

News agency Amaq, which supports Islamic State extremists, said the group had claimed responsibility for the attacks on the city, which lies near the border with Turkey and close to Iraq.

"Dozens of dead and wounded in the bombings by the fighters of the Islamic State in different parts of Qamishli city," it said.

Qamishli is under the shared control of the Syrian regime and Kurdish authorities, who have declared zones of "autonomous administration" across parts of north and northeast Syria.

Regime troops and Kurdish fighters have coordinated on security in Hassakeh province, where Islamic State group militants have tried to advance.

Other Kurdish-controlled towns in Hassakeh have been hit by IS suicide bombers, including a recent blast in Tal Tamr which left at least 26 people dead.