Car bomb kills at least 10 people near Syria's border with Turkey
BEIRUT - At least 10 people were killed and 25 wounded when a car bomb exploded on Saturday in a Syrian border town seized by Turkish-backed forces last month, witnesses and a rescuer said.Tel Abyad was one of two border towns that saw some of the heaviest fighting when Ankara launched its cross-border offensive on Oct. 9 targeting Kurdish YPG forces in northeast Syria.The YPG -- which Ankara considers a terrorist group because of its ties to PKK Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey -- had for years been allied to the United States in the fight against Islamic State. Turkey began the incursion after President Donald Trump pulled U.S. troops out of the area.Saturday@@@s blast caused extensive damage to a main street in Tel Abyad, sending thick smoke into the air above the wreckage, videos posted on social media showed.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said four civilians from the same family were among those killed by the explosion, which the local council said residents blamed on the YPG and PKK.Turkey@@@s Defence Ministry also accused the YPG of carrying out the attack, which it said had killed three people and wounded 20, while a senior spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accused "Turkish-backed mercenaries" of being responsible."After expelling the majority of Kurds, looting almost all the shops and houses in this Kurdish district of Tel Abyad, Turkish-backed mercenaries are now attempting to displace the remaining Kurdish population from their homes by random explosions in civilian areas," Mustafa Bali, the head of SDF@@@s media office, said on Twitter.Similar car blasts frequently hit crowded civilian areas in the mainly Arab populated towns near the border with Turkey, which are under the control of Turkish-backed forces.The Kurdish-led forces say its fighters are engaged in a guerrilla campaign against Turkish forces but denies targeting civilians.ByREUTERS06/08/2025 07:57 AMByREUTERS06/08/2025 05:36 AMByMAARIV06/07/2025 02:33 PMByWALLA!06/07/2025 11:18 AMByREUTERS06/07/2025 03:25 AM
