Ciwan Ibrahim, the head of the Kurdish security police known as Asayish in Kurdish, blamed in a statement on Wednesday the Baath-regime and ISIS for the death and injury of dozens of civilians in Qamishli city, northeastern Syria. 

Dr. Nasir Haji Mansour, an official in the ranks of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said that at least 50 civilians were killed in an attack near the security police building in the Gharbi neighborhood of Qamishli.

“Most of them were civilians, since the Asayish members had meetings and were not in the building when the deadly attack occurred,” he said. “We know how to arrest the perpetrators, we have the technology to find out where the car came from.” 

Qamishli was recently announced to be the new capital of the federal administration that will be created in northern Syria and Rojava. Both the regime and the Syrian opposition have expressed their opposition towards federalism and the US-backed operation to take the city of Manbij from ISIS launched on 31 May.

“ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but apparently the regime has played an indirect role in this terrorist attack,” Mansour Said “The regime doesn’t want the Kurds to progress, they still don’t recognize Kurdish rights. The regime is also angry with the successes of the YPG [People’s Protection Units] and the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces],” he said.

The official also accused the pro-regime NDF militia of having links to the Islamic State group.

“It is possible that the regime gave information, or had information about the attack, but did not stop it,” he said. “The Syrian regime has intelligence inside ISIS.”

According to the SDF official, the attacks in Qamishli came as a revenge message for the operation in Manbij, “and ISIS sees all Kurds as enemies, not only YPG,” he said.

“The regime doesn’t want us to advance in Manbij. When we announced an operation towards Raqqah, the regime headed towards Tabqa town in Raqqa province. When we stopped our operations there, the regime withdrew from the area,” he said.

In a statement published by the ISIS-linked Aamaq news agency, the group said it carried out the attack in Qamishli, describing it as a truck bombing that struck a complex of Kurdish offices.

The extremist group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.