A deadly "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) suicide attack targeting a wedding celebration near al-Hasakeh city shows the group is merely a criminal gang that seeks to shed the blood of all who oppose it, local residents said.

The group's use of a teenage boy to carry out the October 3rd attack on a Kurdish wedding hall, which left 37 dead and dozens wounded, is further proof of its utter disregard for human life, officials and eyewitnesses told Diyaruna.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 11 children were among those killed in the attack, which ISIL claimed via its Amaq news agency.

ISIL exploits youth

"Despite the security measures taken by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Asayesh in the areas of northern Syria that have been liberated from ISIL, the group’s criminality enables it to infiltrate peaceful villages to murder civilians," said Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) officer Farhad Khoja.

According to eyewitnesses, he told Diyaruna, the "suicide bomber was a youth of no more than 15, which was probably why he was able to reach the wedding hall and carry out his crime".

It would be easy for a teenager to sneak into the hall under such circumstances without attracting attention, he added, denouncing ISIL's exploitation of youth.

The group has built a massive army of children under the name of "Cubs of the Caliphate" to carry out attacks amid the shortage of fighters ISIL is suffering from as a result of ongoing military operations, Khoja said.

The attack confirms ISIL’s criminality on multiple levels, he added, stressing "the necessity of confronting and uprooting [the group] from the areas in which it has a presence in Syria and Iraq to stop the bloodshed".

Women and children among the dead

Wedding photographer Walid Mohammad said he was taking pictures of the party when he felt a huge explosion, AFP reported.

"I saw so many people die -- small kids, old people," he said.

Both the groom and bride were safe, but the groom's father and brother were killed in the attack, a relative said.

"The groom's wounds are light, and he and his new wife are staying at a relative's home. He does not want to see anyone," he said. "They are really shaken up by this."

Mohamed Kassar, a wedding singer, struggled to hold back tears as he described the aftermath of the attack.

"I am still in shock. They were children and women," he told AFP.

The initial death toll from the attack was 22, with close to 100 wounded, said Haval Abbas, a nurse with the Kurdish Red Crescent.

However, the death toll increased to 37 because "some of the injuries were very critical as they were caused by shrapnel from the blast", he told Diyaruna.

A large number of the wounded are still receiving medical care at hospitals in the region, he said, particularly in the cities of al-Hasakeh, Qamishli and Amuda, while four critical cases were transferred to Duhuq hospital in Iraq.

One of the patients transferred to Duhuq has since died, he said.

United against terrorism

ISIL has targeted al-Hasakeh residents in retaliation for their "rejection of its presence on their lands", National Peace Council member Ammar Saleh told Diyaruna.

Suicide bombers have conducted numerous attacks in the area on previous occasions, he said, but the latest attack is the "most heinous of them all".

The wedding was held by a prominent Kurdish family, he said, and it was expected that the hall and the surrounding area would be very crowded.

"The people of al-Hasakeh region are of all sects and ethnicities," he said, adding that they are united against terrorism, "which does not differentiate between Arabs and Kurds".