62 killed in attacks near newly freed Syrian town
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TWO attacks near a Syrian town just captured by Turkish forces and Syrian opposition fighters from the Islamic State group killed at least 60 people, mostly civilians, and two Turkish soldiers yesterday.
The attacks came as the group retreats from one of its last remaining strongholds in northern Syria, Turkey’s news agency and Syrian activists said.
A suicide car bomb went off yesterday outside a security office operated by Syrian opposition north of al-Bab, killing 60 people, mostly civilians who had gathered to return home to the town liberated from IS only a day earlier. At least six fighters were among those killed in the attack, according to Turkey’s prime minister, who spoke in Ankara.
Mohammed al-Tawil, a leading Syrian opposition fighter north of al-Bab, said a suicide attacker blew up his small pick-up truck outside a security office in Sousian village, about 8 kilometers north of al-Bab. He said the explosion went off as the opposition fighters were organizing the return of civilians from al-Bab who had been displaced by the fighting for their town.
“These people have suffered a lot,” al-Tawil told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Sousian. “They have been waiting for this moment” to return home.
Al-Tawil, a member of the opposition al-Bab military council, said about four fighters manning the checkpoint were killed in the attack. Al-Tawil, who was at the security office at the time of the explosion, said the rest of the casualties were civilians from al-Bab.
Al-Bab, which had been controlled by IS since late 2013, was captured on Thursday, after more than two months of intense fighting led by Turkish troops supporting Syrian opposition fighters.
IS militants who withdrew from the town still control areas around it. The Sousian security office was supervising the issuing of permits and providing escorts for civilians wishing to return to al-Bab. Al-Tawil said at least two groups of about 150 civilians had already left early yesterday for al-Bab, accompanied by a mine sweeping unit run by Syrian opposition fighters.
Hours later, a second explosion was reported south of al-Bab, where two Turkish soldiers were killed, Turkey’s military said.
The military said the two soldiers were killed when an explosive device went off as they were removing land mines. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said the soldiers were killed when an explosive device went off near Tadif, an IS-controlled town south of al-Bab.
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