UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the attacks on those celebrating the Kurdish holiday of Nowruz in northern Syria, extending his condolences to the families of almost 100 victims.
"The Secretary-General condemns the attacks targeting Nowruz celebrations in Al-Hasakah City in north-east Syria today. Initial reports suggest that two separate bombings killed and injured up to 100 persons, including women and children. These heinous attacks took place during a holiday that is customarily a time for Kurdish communities to come together to share their hopes for the new year," the United Nations said in a Friday statement.
According to the statement, Ban Ki-moon took note of the reports linking the attacks to the Islamic State (ISIL) extremist group and stressed that the radicals should not be allowed to stir up ethnic divisions in Syria, where the terrorists have been active since 2012.
The Secretary General also extended his "deepest condolences" to the "bereaved" families of the victims of the attack and wished a "speedy recovery" to the injured.
Earlier on Friday, a military source told Sputnik that two suicide bombers killed at least 20 people in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh (al-Hasakah), who were celebrating Nowruz, a traditional festival of spring considered as the start of the New Year. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the suicide bombers had links with ISIL.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State, has seized vast areas in Iraq and Syria, proclaiming an Islamic caliphate on all the territories under its control and forcing thousands of people, mostly member of ethnic and religious minorities, to flee.
