ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 17 people were reported killed in a car bombing on Tuesday in the Kurdish border town of Sari Kani, also known as Ras al-Ain, in northern Syria. A separate car bombing in the northwest Syrian city of Afrin wounded eight.
The Sari Kani attack took place the Turkish military-held village of Tel Halaf, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry. It accused the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) of planting the bomb.
“The PKK/YPG terror group continues its car bombings aimed at civilians,” the defense ministry said in a statement. “The child murderers this time detonated a car bomb in Tal Halaf village west of Ras al-Ayn, killing 17 people and wounding more than 20.”
Turkey accuses the YPG of fostering ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed opposition group fighting for Kurdish political and cultural rights in Turkey.
The YPG makes up the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Its commanders are yet to comment on Tuesday’s attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, confirmed the attack and the death toll.
“Most of those killed were pro-Turkish factions,” it said. “The car bomb targeted a gathering near a market of the town of Tel Halaf.”
On October 9, Turkish forces and their Syrian militia proxies launched Operation Peace Spring against the YPG, vowing to push Kurdish fighters away from Turkey’s southern border and establish a 32-kilometre deep ‘safe zone’.
Washington and Moscow separately brokered deals with Turkey to end the incursion, though clashes have continued.
Fighting is ongoing in Ain Issa and Tel Tamr between Turkish-backed factions and the SDF.
The Syrian Observatory also confirmed Tuesday’s blast in downtown Afrin.
“The explosion injured at least eight people and caused material damage,” the war monitor said, reporting the blast took place on al-Siyasiyyeh Street in the middle of the city.
Afrin has been held by Turkish-backed militia groups as part of the Olive Branch Operation since March 2018.
