Syria
A first responder searches for victims of a car bomb explosion in the town of Azaz, in the north of Aleppo province near the border with Turkey, on March 20, 2020. Photo: Bakr ALKASEM / AFP
Two civilians were killed and several wounded by a car bomb that exploded in the northwestern Syrian city of Azaz at sunset Thursday.
Civil Defense ambulances forces responded in the aftermath of the explosion, which targeted a security checkpoint.
It is the second attack to hit Azaz since late January, when another car bomb killed seven people when it exploded in the middle of a bustling area located near several restaurants in Azaz.
Located in northern Aleppo province, Azaz has been relatively peaceful when compared to nearby Idlib, where three million civilians are threatened by an impending Syrian offensive to wrest the province from rebel forces. Azaz, which is home to many who have fled fighting in other parts of Syria, has seen sporadic suicide attacks since Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016 to seize territories from the Syrian Democratic Forces. Areas where Turkish troops and intelligence forces are installed to support Syrian rebels and Turkish-trained police forces are regularly hit by car bombs and explosions.
In nearby Idlib province, two Turkish soldiers were killed in a separate rocket attack yesterday. The Turkish Defense Ministry attributed the attack to "some radical groups in the region," without specifying a group by name.
A ceasefire in Idlib, brokered by Turkey and Russia and monitored by joint patrols, had tensely held for almost two weeks. It broke down on Tuesday when ground clashes killed one on the rebel side and four on the Syrian regime side.
Idlib residents held demonstrations and dug trenches last week to block the M4 highway in protest of the Turkish-Russian presence. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have hailed the “significant decrease” of tensions in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, a week after the two leaders announced a ceasefire in the area.
Talks between Moscow and Ankara eased an escalating spiral of fighting between Russia-backed Syrian regime forces and rebels, and recently between regime and Turkish forces. Despite small-scale clashes, last week’s ceasefire managed to bring a brief and rare calm to the embattled Syrian northwest. Scores of fighters from both sides were killed in the weeks leading up to the ceasefire, including nearly 60 soldiers – to which Ankara responded with the deployment of thousands more troops to Idlib to conduct attacks against Syrian regime forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the shelling of Syrian regime forces by Turkish forces on Thursday in the southern part of the province.
Backed by Russian air power, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces launched an extensive offensive against pro-Turkey rebels and their allied jihadists in Idlib and Aleppo provinces in December, retaking more than a hundred towns and villages it lost to them since 2011.
The March 5 ceasefire seeks the suspension of clashes in Idlib and other surrounding areas, the conduct of joint patrols on the strategic cross-country M4 highway, and establishment of a “safe corridor” 6 km north and south of the M4.
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