A British-based war monitor on Saturday said that a car bomb in the Turkish-controlled region of Afrin in northern Syria killed five people, including a child. According to an AFP report, the car blew up in a busy area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’ chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that the death toll could rise, keeping in mind the 15 other people who were wounded in the attack, some being in critical condition.

Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies grabbed the region of Afrin from Kurdish fighters in 2018.

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Afrin and other areas in northern Syria under Turkish control are regularly rocked by such bombings.

There is usually no claim for them, although Turkey routinely blames Kurdish fighters it accuses of being “terrorists” linked to its outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Syria’s war has killed more than 387,000 people and displaced millions since 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

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Other instances of attacks.

In early January, one civilian was killed in the town of Jindires in the Afrin region – a car bomb. The same day, another similar attack near a vegetable market Turkish-held border town of Ras al-Ain killed five people, including two children.

In November, a car bomb went off near a bakery in Afrin, killing three people and wounding 16 others.