At least two people were killed and 17 wounded Tuesday in a car bombing in northwestern Syria, according to the governorship of Turkey’s Hatay province, which neighbors Syria.
An explosives-laden vehicle detonated in the city center of opposition-held Afrin, the governorship said in a statement.
Property damage was also reported, including at the office of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), sources told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Afrin was largely cleared of YPG terrorists, the PKK's Syrian offshoot, in 2018 through Turkey's anti-terror offensive Operation Olive Branch, but the terror group still has sleeper cells in the region.
Hours earlier, another terrorist attack took place when an explosives-laden vehicle detonated in the al-Bab district of Aleppo province, killing five and injuring 18.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast, though locals suspect the YPG, which occasionally carries out attacks in Syria's adjacent Tal Rifaat and Manbij regions, targeting Jarablus, Azaz, Afrin and al-Bab.
United Nations Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis Mark Cutts said the attack was “another horrific car-bomb in Al-Bab today with more civilian casualties.”
“Car-bombs remain a deadly scourge in Syria,” he tweeted.
Once ruled by Daesh terrorists, al-Bab was liberated three years ago in Operation Euphrates Shield, which was carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Army (SNA).
Syria's civil war has killed more than 380,000 people since it started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.
