Massive tanker bomb kills dozens

BEIRUT: A massive tanker truck bomb ripped through a market in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz on Saturday, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens near the Turkish border.

The attack appeared to be the deadliest yet in the town in northern Aleppo province, which has been regularly bombed.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 14 rebels were among the dead, but most of those killed were civilians, including five religious judges belonging to various rebel factions.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said identification of the dead was being hampered by the fact that some bodies were completely burned in the blast.

Video from the scene showed huge clouds of smoke rising from a street filled with debris and twisted metal, which bulldozers were working to clear.

Raging fires were burning in several vehicles, and the fire brigade was battling to put them out with a giant water tanker and hoses.

Azaz has been repeatedly struck by bomb attacks, including in November when rebels said 25 people were killed in a car bombing of a rebel headquarters.

The rebels accused the Islamic State (IS) of being behind that attack.

The jihadist group is present elsewhere in Aleppo province and has sought to advance on Azaz in the past.

In October, at least 17 people were killed in a car bomb attack on a rebel checkpoint, the Observatory said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday’s attack, but Osama al-Merhi, a lawyer at the scene of the blast, pointed the finger at the IS.

“These kinds of crimes are only committed by the terrorist group Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the IS.

“They are the ones who target civilians and the cadres who are building this country.”

The blast comes during a fragile nationwide ceasefire brokered by government ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey.

The truce came into effect on Dec 30, and is intended to pave the way for new peace talks in Kazakh capital Astana, which regime ally Iran is also helping organise.

But the ceasefire and the planned talks have been threatened by ongoing violence in the rebel-held Wadi Barada region outside Damascus, which is the main water source for the capital.

Overnight, the Observatory said seven Syrian soldiers and two civilians were killed in clashes.

Fighting in the region has continued despite the truce, which does not apply to the IS or former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, known previously as alNusra Front.

The government says Fateh al-Sham is present in Wadi Barada, and blames rebels there for cutting water to Damascus since Dec 22.

Rebels deny the jihadist group is in the region and say the mains supply was severed after government strikes hit pumping facilities in the area.

The damage has left 5.5 million people in Damascus and its suburbs without water, according to the UN.

A source close to the regime said a temporary ceasefire had been agreed to allow the repair crews to enter Wadi Barada, though it could take days before the mains supply is restored.

State media on Saturday said however that maintenance teams attempted to reach the area 15km northwest of Damascus but were forced back by sniper fire.

More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011.

The fighting has displaced more than half the population, internally or abroad, and proved stubbornly resistant to international attempts to broker a solution.