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SYRIA-CONFLICT-2nd LEAD
Car bombing kills 19 in Syria’s Azaz: monitor
AZAZ, Syria, June 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least 19 people were killed Sunday
in a car bomb near a bustling market and mosque in a rebel-held city in
northwestern Syria, a war monitor said.
Four children were among those killed in the explosion in Azaz, in the
heart of a Turkish zone of influence in Aleppo province, said the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights.
The attack also wounded more than 20 people, according to the Britain-based
monitor.
“Many people were leaving evening prayers when the explosion happened,”
Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.
Shoppers buying clothes and gifts ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday
were among those killed, said Jihad Berro, a coroner at a local hospital.
He said the medical facility was crammed with victims and their relatives.
“The emergency rooms were full, we placed corpses on the floor,” he said.
“It is a real catastrophe before the Eid al-Fitr holiday,” which marks the
end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said Berro.
An AFP photographer saw a large crowd gathering at the scene of the attack,
charred vehicles dotting the side of the road.
Rescue workers searched through mounds of rubble, looking for bodies, he
said.
Resident Abu Youssef said the explosion torched the neighbourhood.
“The damage is severe: at least six stores were burned, the storefronts of
dozens of other stores were blown out,” he told AFP.
It was not clear who was behind the attack, which came a day after a
similar explosion killed 10 people and wounded 20 in the northeastern city of
Raqa.
Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016 and seized more than
2,000 square kilometres of northern Syria including Azaz, clearing the area
of Islamic State jihadists while preventing any Kurdish advance in the
region.
Ankara keeps Turkish troops and intelligence forces in the area, and still
backs Syrian rebels serving as police officers.
BSS/AFP/RY/1415 hrs