Eight Killed, 20 Injured in Car Blast in Syria’s Raqqah

Date: 10 November 2019 - 22:01

News ID: ۷۲۵۰۴

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – At least eight people perished and more than 20 sustained injuries after a car explosion rocked the village of Suluk in the north of the Syrian Raqqah Governorate on Sunday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said via Twitter.
The ministry blamed Kurdish militia for the attack.
"Innocent civilians were massacred by the bloody PKK / YPG terrorists. 8 civilians were killed and more than 20 were wounded in the attack organized by terrorists in the village of Sal?k Atik in the south of Tal Abyad," the post read.
In October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched an incursion into northeastern Syria to "clear the territory of terrorists," referring to the so-called Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers terrorists.
In another development, a combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), operated by Turkish military forces, reportedly launched an airstrike against a residential neighborhood in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, in the aftermath of a cross-border incursion by Turkish army troops and their allied militants against militants from the YPG.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that the drone fired a missile at al-Dardara village on the outskirts of the key border town of Ra’s al-Ayn on Sunday.
There were no immediate reports about possible casualties, and the extent of damage caused.
Separately, a landmine planted by the Turkish forces in al-Assadiya village went off, leaving several people injured.
The developments took place only a day after Syrian government troops retook the village of Um Shuaifeh, located near the border with Turkey, from Turkish military forces and their allied militants following intense clashes.
SANA said the battles involved heavy and medium weapons, noting that Syrian army soldiers finally managed to liberate the village and establish full control over it.
They forced Turkish forces and their allies to retreat towards the village of Mahmudiya, Syria’s official news agency said, without providing any information about possible casualties.
A correspondent and two cameramen for the state-run al-Ikhbariyah Syria television news network, identified as Fadel Hammad, Walid Ibrahim and Mohammed al-Khaled respectively, were injured by tank shell shrapnel during the coverage of the clashes.