BEIRUT: A car bomb blast killed at least seven civilians at a camp for displaced Syrians by the border with Jordan on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The Britain-based group said the dead included a family of four, with the father, mother and two children killed in the blast on the outskirts of the Rukban camp.

It said other civilians had been injured and the toll could rise because several were in serious condition.

Jordan’s official Petra news agency, citing a military source, also reported the blast at the isolated makeshift camp, which houses around 85,000 Syrians according to the United Nations.

The source said 14 wounded people had been taken to a clinic in the border area for treatment, adding that no decision had been taken yet on whether they would be transported to Jordanian hospitals. The source added that there were no Jordanian casualties.

Jordan closed its nearby border in June 2016, halting aid deliveries to the camp, after a bombing claimed by the militant Islamic State group killed seven Jordanian soldiers.

Officials said at the time that the bomber had come from the camp and declared the border a closed military zone.

The decision prompted shortages at the camp, with rights group Amnesty International in October decrying “hellish” conditions for those seeking refuge there.

Aid has been delivered to the camp only twice since the border was closed, most recently in November, when the UN supplied food, hygiene kits and winter clothing.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2017