A car carrying a bomb exploded Friday in the town center of Reyhanlı district in southern Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria, killing three Syrian nationals.

Hatay Governor Rahmi Doğan said two Syrian nationals inside the car were killed in the explosion and the subsequent fire, and one other person was injured, who later died at the burn unit in Iskenderun State Hospital.

Soon after the blast, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said initial findings showed that the incident may be terror related. "It is apparent that a bomb was inside the car and those inside were Syrian nationals. All three of them died," Erdoğan said.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu later said the blast is believed to be caused by a handmade explosive. He said the three Syrian nationals involved in the incident were living in Turkey under temporary protection.

The blast took place some 750 meters away from the district governorate building in the town center. Initial reports said that the car, registered in Syria and bearing a temporary Turkish license plate, was parked when the blast happened, but it was later revealed that it was on the move.

It was claimed that the target of the bomb-laden vehicle was people leaving Friday prayers at the nearby Fatih Sultan Mehmet Mosque located some 50 meters away from the blast scene.

Reyhanlı borders Syria and the town center lies to north of the border, while the Cilvegözü border gate, a main crossing into Syria, is some five kilometers away. The district has been home to a large population of Syrian refugees since the conflict erupted in Syria.

On May 11, 2013, a bomb-laden vehicle was detonated in Reyhanlı town center first, killing scores and causing destruction. A second vehicle was detonated five minutes later after dozens, including civilians, first-aid units and security forces, had rushed to the area to help those wounded in the attack.

In addition to killing 53 people and injuring dozens of others, the attack devastated the district, damaging 912 houses, 891 businesses and 148 vehicles. It was the deadliest attack in the country at the time.

The attack was staged by the armed terrorist group the People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (THKP/C), a former Turkey-based left-wing group that moved to Syria in the 1990s. Syrian intelligence agency al-Mukhabarat was also implicated in the attack, which was conducted by an operative who brought in explosives from Syria and detailed orders on where and how to stage the attack. Pundits claimed that the Assad regime sought to hit the Syrian opposition inside the borders of their main supporter Turkey, and Reyhanlı, as one of the main concentration centers of opposition groups, was chosen for the attack. It was also claimed that by targeting predominantly Sunni Turkmen and the Arab town of Reyhanlı, the regime sought to ignite ethnic tensions inside Turkey and specifically Hatay, where a significant Alawite population lives.

Three months earlier on February 11, 2013, a bomb-laden vehicle brought in Syria was detonated inside the no man's land between Cilvegözü and Bab al-Hawa border gates, killing 18 people and wounding 24 others.

Later in 2017 and early 2018, the town was targeted by the PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorist group in mortar and rocket attacks launched from positions in Syria's northwestern Afrin district. One person was killed and several others were injured in the attacks, which also targeted Kilis and Gaziantep provinces bordering Syria. Soon after, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch, clearing the area of PKK/YPG militants. </s> At least three people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the southern Turkish town of Reyhanli, located close to the Syrian border.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday that initial findings showed the incident in Hatay province may be terror-related.

“Our colleagues are looking into who was behind this,” he said, adding that the government would provide more information in a few hours.

Al Jazeera correspondent said the victims, who were inside the vehicle when it exploded, were believed to be Syrian.

“Reyhanli is close to Syria’s Idlib province so it is [an] important [location] for Syrians passing through from Turkey to Syria,” she said.

Local Governor Rahmi Dogan told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency that the cause of the blast was not immediately known.

Anadolu reported that the blast site was less than a kilometre from the governor’s office.

Video footage distributed by local news agencies showed a car in the middle of the street covered in flames before being extinguished by firefighters.

In May 2013, a twin car bombing blamed on pro-Damascus groups in Reyhanli killed more than 50 people, in one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey’s modern history.

Turkey was hit by a series of terror attacks in 2015 and 2016 blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) armed group and Kurdish fighters, which left hundreds dead.

The last major attack was the New Year massacre by a gunman at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, just minutes into 2017, which left 39 dead. </s> A bomb went off in a car near Turkey’s border with Syria on Friday, killing two Syrians who were inside the vehicle, Turkey’s interior minister said.

A bomb went off in a car near Turkey’s border with Syria on Friday, killing two Syrians who were inside the vehicle, Turkey’s interior minister said.

Two Syrians killed in ‘terror’ blast in Turkish border city

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the explosion appeared to be terror-linked.

The blast occurred inside a car some 750 yards from a local government office in the border town of Reyhanli, in Hatay province, Anadolu Agency said.

Earlier, Mr Erdogan said three Syrians were killed in the explosion, but interior minister Suleyman Soylu later said only two were killed.

The third Syrian was in serious condition.

Mr Soylu said the explosion was caused by a hand-made bomb which went off while the car was in transit.

He said all three Syrians were legally registered in Turkey.

He did not identify them.

“It is clear that there was a bomb inside the vehicle,” Mr Erdogan said.

“The findings at the moment indicate that it was … linked to terrorism.”

In 2013, two car bomb attacks in Reyhanli killed 52 people, including Syrian refugees.

Turkey was also hit by a wave of attacks in 2015 and 2016 blamed on the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants that killed around 300 people.

In the last major attack, 39 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at an Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations in the early hours of 2017.

The attack was claimed by the IS group. </s> As many as 11 people have been killed and over two dozen others suffered injuries after a bomb-laden car exploded in the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin, a source in the opposition Free Syrian Army told Sputnik on Thursday

ANTAKYA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2019) As many as 11 people have been killed and over two dozen others suffered injuries after a bomb-laden car exploded in the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin, a source in the opposition Free Syrian Army told Sputnik on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, media reported that five people had been killed in a car bomb blast in Afrin.

There were also reports claiming that two explosions had taken place: one in Afrin and the other one in the nearby village of Turanda.

"Eleven people were killed, 25 were injured � six of them are in serious condition � when a car bomb exploded in a residential area in the Syrian city of Afrin," the source said.

He added that some of the injured had been taken to hospitals in Turkey. </s> As many as 11 people were wounded on Thursday in a car bomb blast that occurred in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, Syrian state television reported on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2019) As many as 11 people were wounded on Thursday in a car bomb blast that occurred in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, Syrian state television reported on Thursday.

The car bomb exploded near a Christian church in the city's central district of al-Wasta.

Several cars were damaged by the explosion.

Earlier in the day, media reported that a car bomb blast took place in the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin. Some media outlets claimed that there were two explosions one in Afrin and the other one in the nearby village of Turanda. A source told Sputnik that 11 people were killed and at least 38 were injured in the incident. </s> A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device went off in Turkey's southern city of Reyhanli on Friday, Suleyman Soylu, the country's interior minister, said

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th July, 2019) A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device went off in Turkey 's southern city of Reyhanli on Friday, Suleyman Soylu, the country's interior minister , said.

Earlier in the day, the Anadolu news agency reported that two people were killed and two others injured as a result of a car bomb blast.

"We believe that there was an improvised explosive device in the car. It exploded when [the car] was moving. All three Syrians who were in the car resided in Turkey under temporary residence permits. Two of them died, one sustained serious injuries," Soylu said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the incident could be linked to terrorism. </s> A car bomb near a checkpoint manned by Turkey-backed rebels in the northern Syrian city of Afrin killed 13 people including eight civilians Thursday, a war monitor said.

Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies took control of Afrin from Kurdish forces in March last year after a two-month air and ground offensive.

"The car bomb exploded near the checkpoint at the entrance to the town where vehicles were gathering to be checked," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Those killed also included four fighters and an unknown person, the Observatory said.

"Among the victims, at least six are originally from Eastern Ghouta", a former rebel stronghold outside Damascus retaken by the regime last year, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

There was no immediate claim for the blast, which is the latest deadly explosion to rock the city.

In January, a bomb placed on a bus killed three people.

In December, a car bomb took the lives of nine people.

Since Turkish troops and pro-Ankara Arab rebels captured the town from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the United Nations and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have documented widespread abuses.

The UN and Amnesty have also reported patterns of house appropriations by fighters and civilians bussed to Afrin during the surrender last year of Eastern Ghouta.

Half of the enclave's 320,000 residents fled, according to a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry, and most are unable to return.

Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Turkey accuses the YPG of being "terrorists", but the Kurdish militia also forms the backbone of a US-backed alliance fighting the Islamic State group in Syria. </s> ISTANBUL: A car exploded in southeast Turkey near the border with Syria on Friday, killing three Syrian people, President Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that initial findings showed the blast may be terrorism-related.

The explosion took place in the town of Reyhanli, where officials are carrying out inspections to determine its cause, Erdogan said. He said it was clear the explosion was the result of a bomb inside the vehicle detonating.

Security sources said one of the Syrian passengers in the car was a suicide bomber whose explosive device detonated early, causing the blast. The sources said the passengers in the car were being investigated for potential links to Islamic State, and added that one person was also wounded in the blast.

Reyhanli is home to thousands of Syrian refugees. Following a series of bombings in the region in 2013, Turkey tightened controls along its 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria.

Twin car bombs ripped through the town, which is in Hatay province, on May 11, 2013, killing 52 people. At the time, Turkey accused a group loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of carrying out the attacks. Damascus denied any involvement.

In May, Turkey handed down 53 life sentences without parole to Yusuf Nazik, the man authorities say planned the 2013 bomb attack.

Turkey has been one of the biggest supporters of the rebels fighting Syrian government forces during the eight-year conflict in Syria. It hosts some 3.5 million Syrian refugees. </s> ALEPPO, Syria — A car bomb blew up Sunday in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, killing three civilians and wounding more than 25 others a day after two lethal blasts in the capital, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in a statement updating an earlier report to give the casualty toll, said the bomb struck near the city’s political security offices.

In Damascus, state news agency SANA said a “terrorist” car bomb exploded between two residential buildings in the Sulaiymaniyah district of Aleppo, without giving an immediate report of casualties.

The attack left dead and wounded, state television reported, without giving a precise casualty toll. It showed footage of damaged buildings and destroyed cars.

Activists in Aleppo, the target of car bombings Feb. 10 that killed 28 people, said in Beirut on Skype that the latest blast rocked the city at 12:50pm local time.

On Saturday, twin car bomb blasts killed 27 people and wounded 140 others in the heart of Syria’s capital, the interior ministry said, blaming “terrorists” for the attacks near police and air force headquarters. </s> (Hatha al-Youm | Iraq News )- A car bomb exploded near Azra church in the Christian-majority neighborhood of Wasta in Qamishlo, Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), July 11, 2019. Photo: ANHAQAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan,— Twelve people were injured on Thursday when a car bomb exploded near a church in a Christian-majority neighborhood of Qamishlo in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), northern Syria, ANHA news agency reported.The bomb was caused by a booby-trapped vehicle in the neighborhood of Wasta in Qamishlo near Azra church, according to media outlets in Rojava.The metal gate of the church was slightly dented by the blast, but the building otherwise emerged intact, AFP reported.There was no immediate claim for the attack, which Syrian state television said wounded 11 people and damaged nearby cars.The blast caused significant material damage, but no fatalities were reported.The security forces were deployed to the venue and ambulances evacuated the wounded to the hospital for treatment.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said only seven people were wounded, and that three among them were in critical condition.In June, a car bombing near Kurdish security offices in Qamishlo city wounded seven civilians, including a child, the Observatory said.A car bomb killed 11 people and wounded many others on Thursday in the Syrian Kurdish city of Afrin which Turkish forces and Ankara-backed Syrian mercenary fighters captured from Kurdish fighters in 2018, medical sources and a war monitor said.Syria’s Kurds have led the US-backed fight in the war-torn country against the Islamic State group, which continues to claim attacks despite its territorial defeat earlier this year.These have included arson attacks on wheat fields and deadly car bombs.The jihadist group still maintains a presence in the country’s vast Badia desert, as well as in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country’s northeast and east.The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ considered the most effective fighting force against IS. The YPG, which make up the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces expelled the extremist group from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.U.S. has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But in December 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP | nrttv.com | hawarnews.comComments Comments
A car bomb explodes in the Turkish city of Reyhanlı. The blast kills three Syrian citizens who were inside the car.