ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An ambulance affiliated with Russian forces was hit on Thursday when an improvised-explosive device (IED) exploded in the Kurdish city of Hasaka in northeast Syria (Rojava) injuring three people, a conflict monitor reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that its sources “reported that a Russian soldier, a translator, and a civilian sustained various injuries by the explosion of an IED in an ambulance belonging to Russian forces” in Hasaka.
The explosion also caused material damage, the UK-based war monitor added.
Al-Khabar, a pro-regime news outlet, also reported the explosion, saying three people were “slightly” injured in the incident, including a translator working for a Russian medical team. The ambulance and another vehicle were damaged, according to the report.
No party immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion. Russia, Damascus, and the Kurdish administration in Rojava have yet to comment on the incident.
The SOHR also said a convoy of the Russian military vehicles headed to the incident area to investigate the explosion.
The incident took place in the so-called Security Square in Hasaka, which is controlled by the Syrian regime forces.
Russia has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest ally throughout the war.
Syrians rose up against the Assad regime in 2011, leading to a full-scale civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and has left millions more in need of dire humanitarian assistance.
Over 13 million Syrians, half the country’s pre-war population, have been displaced since the start of the civil war, more than six million of which are refugees who have fled the war-torn country, according to UN figures.
