Syria roadside bomb kills one near coalition base: monitor

At least one person was killed and dozens more were injured in Syria on Monday when a bomb targeting a military vehicle exploded near a military base hosting some of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

The blast struck on the road from Ain Issa to the base, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in an area controlled by the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. 

"A bomb by the side of the road exploded as a military vehicle drove by on the road from Ain Issa to the Brigade 93 base" in the northern province of Raqqa, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

Spokesmen for the US-led coalition and the SDF were not immediately available for comment.

The SDF has captured almost all of the quarter of Syria east of the Euphrates since beginning a military campaign against the Islamic State group in 2015.

On Monday, the SDF made advances against the militants in one of the last desert areas it controls near the border with Iraq, the monitor reported.

The jihadists have also faced a second offensive from Russia-backed regime troops, but still hold tiny pockets in eastern Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies are also active in northern Syria, as well as militants from a former al-Qaeda affiliate and a myriad other rebel outfits.

On Thursday, the Pentagon warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to carry out an offensive agains Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States that control the country's north-east.

"Any interested party in Syria should understand that attacking US Forces or our coalition partners will be a bad policy," Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, director of the joint staff, said during a press conference.

His remarks came after Assad told Russian broadcaster RT he would not hesitate to use force to retake the third of the country held by the Syrian Democratic Forces. 

"The only problem left in Syria is the SDF," he told the channel, adding he saw "two options".

"The first one: we started now opening doors for negotiations. Because the majority of them are Syrians, supposedly they like their country, they don't like to be puppets to any foreigners," Assad said in English.

"We have one option, to live with each other as Syrians. If not, we're going to resort... to liberating those areas by force."

More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria's war since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.