The Latest: Back-to-back suicide car bombs kill 14 in Syria
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Humvee stands by as a truck that is part of a convoy evacuating hundreds out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants, passes in Baghouz, eastern Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. The evacuation signals the end of a week long standoff and opens the way to U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recapture the territory. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):
6:10 p.m.
A commander with a U.S.-backed Syrian force says back-to-back suicide car bombings in a market in eastern Syria have killed at least 14 people.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Adnan Afrin says the two blasts went off Thursday evening in the village of Shahil, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the al-Omar Oil Field base in the Deir el-Zour province. He says two suicide bombers stopped their cars and detonated the vehicles in the market.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a car bomb that was detonated remotely as a convoy that includes workers and technicians who work at the oil field was passing. The Britain-based war monitor said 20 were killed and others wounded.
The explosions came Thursday as the Kurdish-led forces backed by the U.S. are besieging IS militants in the last speck of territory they control in eastern Syria.
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10:50 a.m.
An Iraqi security official says the U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State group in Syria have handed over more than 150 Iraqi members of the group to Iraq.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The official says the IS militants were handed over to the Iraqi side overnight, and that they were now in a "safe place" and being investigated.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The handover comes as the U.S.-backed Syrian forces are involved in a standoff over the final IS-held sliver of land in southeastern Syria, close to the Iraqi border amid the extremists' imminent territorial defeat.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi said Iraq will take back all Iraqi IS members, as well as thousands of their family members.