On Saturday, in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border, at least seven people lost their lives and thirty others were injured in a car explosion, as reported by residents and rescuers to Reuters.
The blast occurred during the bustling late-night shopping period after the breaking of the fast during the Muslim month of Ramadan.
Yaseen Shalabi, who was shopping with his family near the explosion site, remarked, “Its timing coincided with heavy congestion caused by shoppers.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident. Azaz, a predominantly Arab-populated town governed by Syrian rebel factions supported by Turkey and opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, had experienced relative calm since a car explosion struck it over two years ago.
However, the main towns in the northwestern border region have faced frequent bombings in crowded civilian areas in recent years.
Civil defense forces reported that at least thirty individuals were wounded, with some seriously injured individuals transported to local hospitals.
In the predominantly Arab-populated, rebel-held northwest, residents and rebel groups have harboured suspicions against the Kurdish-led YPG, which controls extensive territories in northeast Syria and east of the Euphrates in the northern region.
Some attribute the attacks to groups aligned with Assad. However, the YPG has consistently refuted these allegations.
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