Five civilians killed in Syria suicide bombing

Five civilians were killed and 13 others wounded after a suicide bomber detonated himself in the regime-held Syrian city of Suweida, a monitor said on Wednesday, in the first such attack in a year.

The attack caused "several deaths”, state-run SANA news agency confirmed, without giving a clear toll.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who drove a motorcycle into Suweida.

SANA published pictures showing a motorcycle ablaze.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, however the Islamic State militant group frequently targets the war-torn country.

The suicide bombing was the first of its kind in this majority-Druze populated city since a series of coordinated attacks launched by the Islamic State group last year that killed more than 260 people.

The IS swept across swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, self-proclaiming a "caliphate" that ruled the region with an iron fist.

The group lost its territorial hold on Iraq in late 2017, with US-backed forces wresting its last bastion in Syria from them in March.

Surviving IS members have gone under cover and carried out sporadic hit-and-run attacks across Syria and Iraq.

Following the collapse of the group's "caliphate" in March, alleged IS fighters from nearly 50 countries have been detained in Syria and Iraq. 

Over 11,000 of their family members are being held in Syria's al-Hol camp alone, although the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces have started repatriating some foreign fighters in recent weeks.

Most recently, an Italian national accused of belonging to the Islamic State militant group was repatriated to his home country at the request of authorities in Rome, the SDF said.

His transfer is part of a wider effort by the Kurdish administration to rid itself of the dregs of the IS proto-state. 

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