By Adham Kako and Omer Koparan
ALEPPO, Syria (AA): At least 12 civilians were killed and dozens injured on Sunday in a car bomb attack in the Cobanbey town of Syria’s Aleppo province near the Turkish border.
The explosion took place at a car park near Cobanbey Hospital, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) across the border from the Elbeyli district of the Turkish province Kilaway.
Search and rescue efforts are ongoing as the hospital and several houses nearby were destroyed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, the second such deadly blast in the wider opposition-held area since June.
A member of the opposition security forces, Osama Abu al-Kheir, told AFP that a refrigerator truck blew up outside a healthcare center.
The deputy head of the town council, Alaa al-Hammad, said the truck appeared to have been detonated by remote control.
A pharmacist and two of his children were among those killed, he said, adding that nearby homes were reduced to rubble.
Turkish troops and the Free Syrian Army launched Operation Euphrates Shield against Daesh terror group and the PKK terror group’s Syrian affiliate People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria in 2016, clearing terrorists out of Çobanbey and the nearby town of Azaz.
In June, another car bomb killed 19 people near a bustling market and mosque in Azaz.
Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
[Map of Syria. Wikimedia commons/Creative Commons]