BEIRUT: A bomb exploded in a market in a north Syrian city held by pro-Turkish forces early Sunday, killing eight people and wounding more than 20 others, a war monitor said.
At least “eight people were killed and 23 others wounded” when “a car bomb exploded in the middle of a popular market” in Azaz, in Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding the toll was provisional.
The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said the blast caused “significant damage” and sparked a fire, adding that ambulances and rescue personnel were at the scene.
A Reuters report, quoting residents and rescuers, placed the preliminary death toll at seven and the number of injured at 30. It said the blast occurred during peak late night shopping after breaking of the fast during the Muslim month of Ramadan.
“It’s timing comes with heavy congestion by shoppers,” said Yaseen Shalabi who was near the site of the explosion shopping with his family.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The Arab-populated town run by Syrian rebel groups backed by Turkiye opposed to Syrian President Bashar al Assad has been relatively quiet since it was hit by a car blast over two years ago.
Main towns in the northwestern border area have in recent years been frequently hit by bombings detonated in crowded civilian areas.
The civil defense forces said that at least thirty were wounded with some seriously injured transferred to local hospitals.
Syria’s war began after the government repressed peaceful protests in 2011 and escalated into a deadly conflict that pulled in jihadists and foreign armies.
The war has killed more than 507,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry.
Turkiye 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.
