Kurds claim ISIS used chemical weapons in Syria

ISIS had used poison gas in attacks in late June in northeastern Syria, a Syrian Kurdish militia said on Saturday

The YPG militia said poison gas had been used in attacks on June 28 and June 29 against YPG-held areas in the northeastern province of Hasaka, Reuters news agency reported citing Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman.

Xelil said the type of chemical used had not been accurately determined. None of the YPG fighters exposed to the gas had died because they were quickly taken to hospital, he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that reports on the war using an activist network on the ground, said it had also documented the use of poison gas by ISIS in northeastern Syria on June 28.

On Friday, ISIS claimed a deadly car bomb blast in an Iraqi town on Friday, killing dozens - including children - celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the militants said in a statement.

The attack occurred in a market area of the predominantly Shiite town of Khan Bani Saad as people shopped on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

Confusion remains over the death toll, with wildly differing numbers from officials. Some reports put the number of dead at 35, 40 and 80 - while ISIS said 180 had been killed in the blast.

More than 70 were wounded, said Mohammed Jawad al-Hamadani, a member of the Diyala provincial council in which Khan Bani Saad is located.

“The explosion was big, it caused a lot of damage,” Raad Fares al-Mas, a member of parliament, said from nearby Baquba, the capital of Diyala.

In a statement, the Sunni militant group said the suicide bomber had three ton of explosives, Reuters reported.

In video footage purportedly showing the aftermath of the blast, people cry out in anguish while black smoke and fires billow out from the blast site.