IS land mine kills at least 20 workers in eastern Syria

A van packed with workers was hit by a land mine left by the Islamic State group, killing more than 20 people on board, Syria's state news agency said on Sunday.

The explosion took place in the central town of Salamiyeh which was once under IS control, the SANA news agency reported. A mine exploded in a nearby area earlier this month, killing seven people.

SANA said the workers hit by Sunday's blast were heading out to pick desert truffles.

IS has been driven from virtually all the territories it once held in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, but the extremists left behind countless bombs and booby traps, and large areas have yet to be cleared.

IS fighters are now cornered by US-backed Syrian forces in a small area near the Iraqi border.

An estimated 300 IS militants are besieged in the village of Baghouz, hemmed in by the Euphrates River and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia spearheading the fight against IS following an intense push since September. Thousands of civilians have fled the area held by the extremists in recent weeks.

The presence of so many civilians - and possibly senior members of the militant group - in Baghouz has surprised the SDF and slowed down the expected announcement of the extremist group's territorial defeat.

More than 30,000 people who left the last IS-held areas have arrived at the al-Hol camp in Syria's northern Hassakeh province in the last few weeks, raising the overall population of the camp to almost 42,000.

SANA and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported that several gas cylinders exploded in al-Hol, wounding at least 14 people and causing a huge fire late Saturday. SANA said the wounded were taken for treatment in nearby hospitals.