Car bombing in Syria kills 7, injures at least 20

AZAZ

Civil defence team members try to extinguish a fire broke out after a bomb-laden vehicle exploded in Azaz district of Aleppo, Syria, Jan. 26, 2020. (AA Photo)

At least seven civilians were killed and 20 others injured in a car bombing in Syria's northwestern city of Azaz, Turkey's defense ministry said on Jan. 26.

The injured were transferred to a hospital.

"The terrorist organization PKK/YPG continues to target civilians with car bomb attacks, just as the Daesh terrorist organization does. The brutal terrorist organization killed 7 more innocent civilians and injured more than 20 with the car bombing in Azaz," the ministry said in a tweet, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

Turkey has launched several military operations in northwestern Syria to clear the region of terror elements.

Ankara wants to clear east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria of the terrorist group PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the PYD/YPG.        

The U.S.-backed SDF, a group dominated by the YPG, has been controlling some 28 percent of the Syrian territories, including the most of the 911-kilometer-long Syria-Turkey border.

Turkey deems the YPG the Syrian offshoot of the illegal PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization also by the United States and the EU.