At least eighteen people, including thirteen civilians, were killed in a car bomb on Tuesday in the Turkish-controlled town of al-Bab in northern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. man (OSDH).
The explosion near a bus station also left at least 75 injured, some of whom are in serious condition, added the OSDH, warning that the death toll was likely to increase.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies have controlled several pockets of Syrian territory since 2016, following three military offensives.
“We condemn in the strongest terms these indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” tweeted after the attack Mark Cutts, UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria.
The attack was not immediately claimed but similar security incidents have already taken place in this city since it was taken over by Turkish troops from the Islamic State (IS) group in 2017.
Located about 40 kilometers northeast of Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria, al-Bab was one of the main strongholds of the “caliphate” established by IS before its fall in a final offensive by Kurdish forces backed by the United States in March 2019.