Car bomb kills 9 in northern Syria town
UNREST CONTINUES
A car bomb killed nine people including four civilians in a Turkishheld border town in northern Syria on Saturday, a Britain-based war monitor said.
Two children were among those killed in Tal Abyad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
But Ankara’s Defense Ministry in a statement blamed Kurdish forces who controlled the town before Turkish troops and proxy fighters overran it last month.
An AFP photographer saw smoke billow from the twisted burned remains of a pick-up truck inside the town, and a bright red bloodstain on the road nearby.
Pro-Turkey fighters and men in civilian clothes carried away human remains in a waterproof cover, he said. The area has been shaken by repeated such bombings since Turkish troops carried out a cross-border operation last month. The Turkish invasion against Kurdish-controlled areas saw Ankara’s fighters seize a strip of land roughly 120km long and 30km deep on the Syrian side of the border.
The operation launched on Oct. 9 displaced tens of thousands and left dozens of civilians dead, and forced Kurdish forces to retreat from some key towns.
On Nov. 10, Turkey blamed Kurdish fighters for another bombing that took the lives of eight people in the village of Suluk southeast of Tal Abyad.
A week earlier, another car bomb killed 13 people in Tal Abyad, according to the Observatory. Despite a US and Russia negotiated cease-fire, fighting in different parts of the northeast continues, as Turkeybacked fighters advance on areas more than 30km south of the border. The Observatory reported intense fighting on early Saturday between the Turkey-backed fighters, supported by artillery, and the Kurdish-led fighters outside Ein Issa, about 36km south of Tal Abyad and near the M4 highway. Syrian regime troops had deployed to the town, formerly an administrative center for the Kurdish-led forces, after US troops stationed there withdrew. On Saturday, the Observatory said the Syrian troops withdrew amid an advance by the Turkey-backed fighters, who have been seeking to capture the town for weeks. A Kurdish official said the Turkeybacked force is attacking the highway at the town’s entrance, leaving all fighters in the town mobilized, including the Syrian government troops. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. It was not clear if the Syrian troops had since withdrawn. A video of the fighting there showed Syrian regime troops on the frontline.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the Turkish forces launched attacks with tanks, artillery and fighters on a number of points in Ein Issa, attempting to invade it. “The cease-fire is once again violated by the Turkish army,” the SDF said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, Turkish and Russian troops completed their 10th joint ground patrol between Ras Al-Ayn and Qamishli on Saturday, according to Turkey’s defense ministry. The patrols are part of the Russianbrokered cease-fire to ensure the Kurdish fighters withdraw from the border area. Turkey sees their presence along its border as an existential threat and mortars fired from Syria into Turkey have killed 21 civilians since the launch of the military offensive.