Deadly car bomb rocks Syria's Afrin

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least three people were killed in a car bombing near a busy market in Afrin city on Monday, according to multiple reports. 

A vehicle exploded near the Kawa roundabout and in front of the headquarters of a Turkish-backed armed group, killing three civilians and injuring another 10, the North Press Agency reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least seven people were killed, including a doctor. Children are among the more than 30 people injured, according to the conflict monitor.

No group has immediately claimed responsibility. 

Turkey and Syrian militia groups it supports seized control of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in Syria’s northwest in 2018. Rights agencies have reported looting, lawlessness, and harassing of the Kurdish population under the militias’ rule. 

Turkey has conducted three military campaigns in northern Syria in the past several years, backing Syrian militia groups, and now controls Afrin, areas north of Aleppo, and pockets of territory within Rojava in the northeast. 

A string of blasts and attacks have rocked these areas in recent weeks. 

A member of the Turkish Red Crescent was killed in an attack on their vehicle near al-Bab, north of Aleppo, the aid agency announced on Monday. The vehicle was labeled with the well-known Red Crescent, it added. 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC) condemned the incident, tweeting that humanitarians are not a target.  

The Observatory reported exchange of fire between Turkish and Kurdish forces north of Aleppo on Monday, the second time in three days. A group calling itself the Afrin Liberation Forces claimed to have killed Turkish soldiers in the Afrin countryside on September 12.

At least two people were killed last week in explosions in Sari Kani, on the border with Turkey.