Dozens killed in deadly car bomb attack on Syrian city near Turkish border

At least 15 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in a car bomb explosion in Al-Bab in northern Syria, which is under the control of Turkish-backed Syrian rebels.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

16 November, 2019

Dozens of people were killed and wounded in the car bomb attack [Getty]

At least 15 people have been killed, most of them civilians, in a car bomb attack in the city of Al-Bab in northern Syria.

A source from the Syrian Civil Defence told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service that a car bomb exploded at a bus station in the city, which is located in northern Aleppo province and has been controlled by Turkish-backed Syrian opposition since 2016.

At least nine of the dead were civilians and a number of fighters were also killed in the explosion.

Local sources also said that 45 people were wounded, some of them critically, and that the death toll was likely to rise.

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Police from Syrian opposition local authorities sealed off the area while civil defence and medical teams transported the injured to hospital.

Several deadly bomb attacks have taked place in Al-Bab and nearby towns since December 2016, when Turkish-backed Syrian rebels participating in Operation Euphrates Shield captured northern Aleppo province from the Islamic State extremist group.

Some attacks have been blamed on the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who were recently targeted by Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring, which targeted Kurdish-held areas on the Syrian-Turkish border east of the Euphrates.

Clashes took place between Turkish-backed Syrian fighters on one side and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian regime troops on the other near the town of Tal Abyad, east of the Euphrates, despite a ceasefire on Friday.

Sources close to the SDF told The New Arab’s Arabic service that two regime troops were killed and three injured in the clashes.