Bomb in Syria town run by Turkish-backed fighters kills 20

A powerful bomb exploded Tuesday in a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkish-backed opposition fighters, killing at least 20 civilians, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported.

Anadolu Agency said the attack in a crowded street in Afrin was carried out using a fuel tanker. It said several others were wounded.

The agency quoted unnamed security officials as saying the attack was believed to have been carried out by Syrian Kurdish fighters linked to Kurdish militants fighting Turkey.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the blast occurred in a market killing 20 and wounding 27 others.

The Qasioun news agency, an activist collective, said the blast killed 42 and wounded more than 50.

Turkey and allied Syrian fighters took control of Afrin in 2018 in a military operation that expelled local Kurdish fighters and displaced thousands of Kurdish residents. 

Ankara considers the Kurdish fighters who were in control of Afrin to be terrorists. Since then, there have been a series of attacks on Turkish targets in the area.

Similar blasts in areas controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters have killed scores of people in recent months, attacks that Ankara blames on Kurdish fighters.

Turkey supports the Syrian opposition in the war against President Bashar Assad but has joined with Russia to secure and monitor local cease-fires.

Activist collectives in northern Syria urged people in the Afrin area to head to hospitals and donate blood.

The Observatory and other activists said the death toll could rise because some of the wounded were in critical condition.