Skip to main content

Car bomb in northern Syrian city of Al-Bab leaves many dead and injured

UN condemns 'indiscriminate attacks' on civilians after Turkish-controlled city struck
A picture shows an aerial view of the town of al-Bab in a rebel-held area in the north of Aleppo province (AFP)

A suspected car bomb in the Turkish-controlled Syrian town of Al-Bab has killed at least 18 people, including 13 civilians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The blast near a bus station in the town also wounded at least 75, leaving some with serious injuries.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the remaining five victims could not immediately be identified.

Several buildings were damaged in the blast and collapsed onto onlookers, two witnesses told Reuters.

Syrian rebels sign up to fight for Azeris to feed families
Read More »

People were being pulled out of the rubble, they said.

Turkey and its Syrian proxies control several pockets of Syrian territory close to Turkey's border following three military incursions since 2016.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the car bombing, but there has been a string of attacks in Al-Bab since its capture by Turkish troops from the Islamic State group in 2017.

The town, 40km northeast of Syria's second city Aleppo, was one of the western-most strongholds of the militants' self-styled territorial "caliphate".

"We condemn in the strongest terms these ongoing indiscriminate attacks on civilians," senior UN humanitarian official Mark Cutts wrote on Twitter after the latest bombing.

US-backed forces seized the last scrap of the IS statelet from the militant in eastern Syria in March last year.

Syria's civil war has killed more than 380,000 people since it started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.