Afrin, a city in northern Syria held by the Turkish army and Syrian auxiliary forces, was the scene of a deadly attack on Tuesday April 28. The explosion of a fuel truck, on which a bomb was placed, killed "at least 46 people, including civilians, and injured 50 others," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ( OSDH), according to whom the balance sheet could be revised upwards. At least six Syrian fighters allied in Ankara are among the dead, the NGO said. She counted 11 children among the victims.

The attack was not claimed. The record is one of the heaviest for months in the territories of northern Syria held by the Syrian deputies of Ankara. These areas are regularly shaken by similar attacks or targeted assassinations.

Providing a higher toll of the victims, the Turkish Defense Ministry attributed the attack on Twitter to the Kurdish militia of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and their allies.

Washington condemns

"Such cowardly and evil acts are unacceptable from any side in this conflict," said spokeswoman for the US State Department Morgan Ortagus.

Located in the province of Aleppo, the Kurdish region of Afrin had been conquered in March 2018 by Turkish forces and their Syrian auxiliaries, who had dislodged the YPG from them. Half of the 320,000 inhabitants of this enclave fled their homes during the offensive, according to the UN, and the majority never returned.

Today, the region hosts thousands of civilians who were settled there after being forced to abandon former rebel strongholds recaptured by the Damascus regime.

According to the UN and Amnesty International, expropriations and other abuses are committed in the enclave, in particular by the Syrian deputies.

With AFP

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