8 dead in car bomb at north Syria market: Monitor

AFP , Sunday 31 Mar 2024

A bomb exploded in a shopping area in a northern Syrian city held by pro-Turkish forces early Sunday, killing eight people and wounding more than 20 others, a war monitor said.

syria
Rescuers check the wreckage of a car at the scene of a bomb explosion in the norther Syrian city of Azaz, early on March 31, 2024. AFP

 

At least "eight people were killed and 23 others wounded" when "a car bomb exploded in the middle of a popular market" in Aleppo province's Azaz said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said the blast caused "significant damage" and sparked a fire.

An AFP correspondent saw emergency responders working at the scene and the remains of a mangled vehicle.

Turkey has launched successive military offensives in Syria, most of them targeting Kurdish militants that Ankara links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies hold swathes of the border, including several major cities and towns such as Azaz.

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