Seven individuals lost their lives, and 30 others sustained injuries on Saturday following a car explosion in the bustling marketplace of Azaz, a Syrian town under rebel control near the Turkish border, as reported by residents and rescuers to Reuters.
The incident took place during the peak hours of late-night shopping after the evening meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Yaseen Shalabi, who was present near the explosion site with his family, remarked on the heavy congestion of shoppers at the time, emphasizing the unfortunate timing of the blast.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Azaz, predominantly inhabited by Arabs and governed by Syrian rebel factions supported by Turkey, had experienced relative calm since a car explosion more than two years prior. However, towns in the northwestern border region have frequently been targeted by bombings in densely populated civilian areas in recent years.
The civil defense forces reported that at least thirty individuals were wounded, some of whom were severely injured and subsequently transferred to local hospitals.
Inhabitants and rebel forces in the predominantly Arab-populated rebel-held northwest have often pointed fingers at the Kurdish-led YPG, which controls significant territories in northeast and northern Syria east of the Euphrates River. Meanwhile, others attribute such attacks to groups aligned with the Assad regime. The YPG consistently denies involvement in these incidents.
