(Beirut) Ten people, including at least four fighters, were killed on Wednesday in a truck bomb explosion at a checkpoint in the town of Azaz in northern Syria, an NGO said.
An AFP correspondent on the ground also reported that a truck bomb had exploded at a checkpoint in the town.
“Ten people were killed, including at least four fighters supported by Turkey,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
The attack was the result of “a truck bomb that exploded at the Shatt checkpoint, manned by Turkish-backed military police in the town of Azaz,” continued the UK-based NGO, which has a vast network of sources in Syria.
PHOTO BAKR ALKASEM, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Firefighters extinguish flames at the checkpoint in the town of Azaz, August 7, 2024.
A medical source at Azaz hospital told AFP that nine people had been killed, including five fighters and four civilians, and around 20 others were injured.
The identity of those responsible has not been revealed.
Since 2016, Turkey has carried out several ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas in northern Syria.
Pro-Turkish forces in Syria now control two large areas of territory along the border.
In July, northern and northwestern Syria were the scene of deadly anti-Turkish protests, following a riot against Syrian businesses and properties in central Turkey, where a Syrian man was accused of harassing a child.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in areas controlled by Ankara, with some armed protesters attacking Turkish trucks or attempting to storm crossing points, clashing with Turkish border guards.
The protests also came as signs of rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus began to emerge.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had backed the rebels’ initial efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the start of the war in 2011.
But it has changed course in recent years, as demonstrated by meetings between officials from the two countries in talks mediated by Russia.
The civil war in Syria has claimed more than half a million lives and plunged the country into a severe humanitarian and economic crisis.