Damascus, Feb 22 (IANS): At least 20 people were killed on Thursday when a car bomb went off in a town controlled by the Kurdish fighters in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.

The car bomb exploded in the town Shehel in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour Province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The bombing targeted a convoy of the Kurdish self-defence force and oil workers were among the killed, said the London-based watchdog, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Islamic State (IS) militant group is behind the attack, it noted.

The incident came as the last IS millitants planned to evacuate their last area in the eastern Euphrates River region in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour.

The Observatory said 260 IS millitants remain in the farmland of the town of Bagouz while dozens of civilians are set to leave the area in accordance with an undeclared deal between the SDF and the IS.

The SDF has been backed by the US-led coalition in their push to drive out the IS from eastern Syria close to the Iraqi border.

The evacuation of IS millitants and their families from eastern Syria has been dragging on recently amid no exact information about their destination.