Bomb kills eight in Turkish-held Syria town of Ras al-Ain: Observatory

A bomb in a Turkish-held town in northeast Syria killed at least eight people, mostly civilians, on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An explosives-rigged motorbike blasted through a vegetable market in the town of Ras al-Ain in Hasakah province, also wounding 19 people, the report said.

The town, where such bombings are common, was seized by Turkish forces and their Syrian allies from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last October.

The Turkish defence ministry blamed Sunday's attack on the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the SDF, which still controls much of northeastern Syria.

Ankara regards the YPG as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it has designated as a terror group, and against which it has launched repeated attacks.

During its most recent incursion against the YPG last year, Ankara established a "safe zone" extending along 120km of the border and including the town of Ras al-Ain.

The area is a frequent target for bombings and other attacks. Last week, a car bomb killed four people and wounded 10.