At least 24 people were killed and dozens injured in parts of Syria controlled by the rebels after a weekend of violence that included several car bomb attacks.
Eleven people died and another 30 were injured in the city of Azaz when a car bomb was detonated on Sunday near a building used by Turkish-backed fighters as an administrative headquarters. Photos of the scene showed black smoke rising from the car wreckage, damaged buildings and a street covered in the blast debris.
Also on Sunday, another car bomb exploded at a checkpoint near the city of Beza’a, killing five fighters from the umbrella group of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), supported by Turkey, and wounding four others, military sources said. .
Ahmad Ali, 33, was passing by when the Azaz car bomb detonated about 100 meters away.
“It felt like thunder, the doors and windows of the buildings around me shook and broke. As a first reaction, I was on the floor and temporarily deaf because of the tremendous noise, ”he said.
“It happened in such a busy place, close to the market and the building where people come to register births and weddings…. I saw the burnt car and rescue workers trying to help, and the corpses. It was a horrible day. “
After a decade of war, Syria is now practically divided into three control zones.
About 3 million civilians, most of whom are afraid to return to their homes in areas controlled by the regime, as well as the remains of the Syrian opposition, Syrian forces supported by Turkey and Islamic groups, are now huddled in the northwest corner of the country.
Oil and wheat production in the northeast is controlled by forces led by the Kurds and supported by the USA, but most of Syria is now once again ruled by Bashar al-Assad, who has recovered all the main cities in the opposition country with the aid from Russia and Iran.
Sunday’s attacks added to an already violent weekend in parts of Syria beyond the control of the regime: on Saturday, the Turkish-controlled town of Afrin was hit by a car bomb that killed eight people, including four children.
On Sunday in Hasekeh, a city controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Kurdish security forces opened fire on pro-Syrian government protesters, killing one and wounding four.
The explosions in Azaz and Afrin have not been claimed by any group, but the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has links to the SDF, is believed to be responsible for what the Syrian Civil Defense statistics show is an increasing number of IEDs, motorcycles and car bomb attacks in both cities.
Afrin was emptied of its majority Kurdish population after a 2018 offensive in the city by Turkey, while Azaz serves as administrative headquarters for Turkish-backed forces. Islamic State dormant cells have also been linked to bombings in the area.
Syrian Civil Defense, a voluntary rescue group operating in parts of Syria controlled by rebels also known as White Helmets, says it has responded to 13 explosions in the northwest of the country since the beginning of the year.
The increase in violence so far in 2021 adds to the already serious winter problems in northwest Syria: an increase in coronavirus cases is bringing an already broken health system to the breaking point, and heavy rains and floods have affected 67,600 people living in camps for displaced persons.