Car bomb near Syria gas plant kills 8 – monitor

A car bomb exploded near a gas plant in Syria’s Homs province on Monday killing eight people, including four soldiers, and wounding 15, a monitoring group said.The jihadist Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack and said the two bombers were killed.State news agency SANA confirmed the attack but claimed regime troops captured the bombers.“Eight people were killed in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint guarding the Firqlos gas plant in Homs province, and 15 others were wounded. Four of the dead were regime troops,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.SANA, quoting a military source, said “guards captured the two terrorists who detonated the pick-up truck at the entrance to the plant while they were trying to flee.”IS meanwhile claimed the two men, both Moroccan, had died.The jihadists have targeted oil and gas facilities in Iraq and Syria as the group seeks funds for its fight to seize territory for a self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate”.In November, Syrian troops backed by pro-regime militiamen recaptured the Shaer gas field in central Homs province, a week after IS fighters had overran parts of the installation.IS killed some 350 regime troops and loyalist militiamen, as well as gas plant workers, during its bid to take over Shaer.Elsewhere in Syria, the Observatory said the number of IS members killed in fighting against Kurdish forces in the flashpoint town of Kobane on Sunday had risen to 18.Another two IS suicide attackers also died, as did 10 members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the British-based monitor said.The jihadists launched a major offensive in mid-September to try to capture Kobane, and at one point controlled more than half of the town, known in Arabic as Ain al-Arab.But backed by US-lead coalition airstrikes on IS positions, Kurdish forces have regained control of several neighbourhoods.Coalition aircraft struck IS targets in Kobane on Sunday night, the Observatory said.More than 1,000 people are reported to have been killed in the battle for the town, most of them jihadists.