On December 16, a booby-trapped car exploded in the Halles marked in the center of Turkish-occupied city of Afrin in northern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the attacks targeted a headquarter of an “Islamic group.”
Initial reports says that eight people were killed in the explosion. According to the SOHR, the number of casualties will likely raise in the upcoming hours, as many people were severally wounded.
مقتل 4 مدنيين جراء تفجير سيارة مفخخة في #عفرين السورية
وضبطت القوات الأمنية سيارة مفخخة أخرى بالمدينة حيث قام خبراء تفكيك القنابل بتحييدهاhttps://t.co/g4zjJanl2c pic.twitter.com/NBHKvAtTbz— ANADOLU AGENCY (AR) (@aa_arabic) December 16, 2018
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. However, Syrian opposition sources are already accusing the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The Kurdish group is not known for carrying out such random attacks.
The Turkish military and its proxies imposed their control of Afrin earlier this year following a rapid attack. Most YPG fighters were forced to withdraw to few villages in the southern Afrin countryside and to the Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria.
The new attack comes amid high tension between Kurdish forces and Ankara, which vowed to launch an attack in northeastern Syria within a few days.
