Scores killed in IS bomb attack on Syria refugees

At least 75 refugees have been killed in eastern Syria following a car bomb attack on a gathering for internally-displaced people on Saturday.

Among the scores killed in the attack in Deir az-Zour were children and carried out by the Islamic State group, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

They had fled fighting in Deir az-Zour after the Syrian regime and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces led two separate offensives against IS.

The new figures comes after a lower death toll was announced on Saturday.

Fighting across Deir Ezzor province has sent thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives, some straight into the desert.

Many of those who are fleeing have tried to find refuge in SDF territory on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River where the Saturday bombing struck.

It was not the first attack attributed to IS against civilians fleeing Deir az-Zour. 

Around 350,000 have fled fighting in Deir az-Zour, half of them children, said Sonia Khush, Syria director at the Save the Children charity.

"The situation in the city, and surrounding countryside, has been especially bleak with civilians trapped between the fighting and all too often caught in the crossfire," she said.