Deadly blast in town held by Turkey-backed gunmen

A car bomb exploded in a northern Syrian town along the border with Turkey yesterday, killing 13 people, Turkey’s Defence Ministry said.

The ministry said about 20 others were wounded when the bomb exploded in central Tal Abyad, captured last month by Turkey-backed opposition gunmen from Kurdish-led fighters.

The ministry blamed Syrian Kurdish fighters for the attack, saying it harshly condemned it and called on the international community to take a stance against the “cruel terror organisation”.

A spokesman for the main Kurdish-led force in Syria, Mustafa Bali, blamed Turkey for the blast, saying it and the Syrian fighters it backs are “creating chaos” in Tal Abyad to displace the Kurds.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Turkey last month invaded northeastern Syria to push out Syrian Kurdish fighters, who it considers terrorists for their links to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

Earlier, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Christian fighters would now oversee security in a northern Syrian region that has witnessed fighting between Turkey-backed troops and Kurdish-led militiamen.

The SDF said the deployment would take place in villages close to the town of Tal Tamr in the Khabur river region. That area is home to Syria’s dwindling Christian Syriac and Assyrian communities.

Turkish-backed fighters have been advancing in northern Syria since last month, leading to the displacement of about 200,000 people. There have been concerns in Christian villages about possible atrocities by Turkey-backed fighters, which include former jihadists.

The announcement came a day after Turkey and Russia launched joint patrols in northeastern Syria, under a deal that halted a Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who were forced to withdraw from the border area following Ankara’s incursion.