At least 32 people are killed in an Islamic State group attack near a refugee camp on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq, a monitor says.

“At least five suicide attackers blew themselves up outside and inside a camp for Iraqi refugees and displaced Syrians in Hasakeh province,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman says.

Heavy clashes then erupted between the IS fighters and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, some of whose combatants were among the dead, Abdel Rahman tells AFP.

A Kurdish activistsays the victims are mostly women and children displaced from the conflict. He spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for his safety.

— Agencies