1st LD: UN chief slams deadly attacks in northeast Syria

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned "heinous attacks" targeting Nowruz celebrations in northeast Syria, which reportedly left up to 100 people killed and injured, including women and children.

"Initial report suggest that two separate bombings killed and injured up to 100 persons, including women and children," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman on Friday night. "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 twin attacks targeted civilian festival gatherings in the al-Mufti community in the predominantly Kurdish province of al-Hasakah.

According to the statement, Ban took note of the reports linking the attacks to the Islamic State 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 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, said the blasts were carried out by a suicide bomber with the Islamic State group.

Clashes have recently been raging between the IS and the Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units in the countryside of al-Hasakah after the Kurdish fighters dislodged the IS from the key border city of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobane, earlier this year.

Kurds in Syria, Iran, Turkey and Lebanon and Iranians mark Nowruz on March 21 every year. The feast, which symbolizes purification of the soul, dates back to the pre-Islamic religion of Zoroastrianism. Endi