At least 10 killed in twin blasts in Syria's Afrin
At least 10 people have been killed in double bombings that hit Syria’s northwestern region of Afrin amid clashes between militant groups in the area.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the explosions struck near Dowar Kawa al-Hadad in Afrin city center, while the other was reported near a headquarters for Turkish forces on a road leading to a hospital.
In March, the Turkish army and the so-called Free Syrian Army units, which are backed by Ankara, established full control over Afrin after more than two months of battles with the US-backed militants controlling Syria’s northern border regions.
Turkey began the so-called Operation Olive Branch against Afrin on January 20 to cleanse the northern Syrian border of the US-backed Kurdish militants of the People's Protection Units (YPG), whom it associates with the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighting for autonomy on Turkish soil.
The observatory said at least four militants were among those killed in Wednesday's bombings, adding that several people were seriously injured.
The Britain-based monitoring group reported that militant groups based in Afrin had earlier engaged in clashes after a dispute at a checkpoint.
Meanwhile, RT Arabic quoted local sources as saying that militants from the so-called Free Syrian Army factions of al-Mu'tasim Brigade and the Levant Front clashed early on Wednesday on the distribution of booty stolen from Afrin industrial area.
Operation Olive Branch in Afrin region is Turkey's second major military intervention in Syria since 2011.
In August 2016, Turkey began a unilateral military intervention in northern Syria, code-named Operation Euphrates Shield, sending tanks and warplanes across the border. Ankara claimed that its campaign was aimed at pushing the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group from Turkey's border with Syria and stopping the advance of Kurdish forces, who were themselves fighting Daesh.
Turkey ended its campaign in northern Syria in March 2017, but at the time did not rule out the possibility of yet another act of military offensive inside the Arab country.
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