ISTANBUL — A car bomb exploded in a northern Syrian town along the border with Turkey on Saturday killing 13 people, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said about 20 others were wounded when the bomb exploded in central Tal Abyad, which was captured last month by Turkey-backed opposition gunmen from Kurdish-led fighters.
The ministry blamed Syrian Kurdish fighters for the attack, saying it harshly condemns it and called on the international community to take a stance against this “cruel terror organization.”
A spokesman for the main Kurdish-led force in Syria, Mustafa Bali, blamed Turkey for the blast, saying Turkey and the Syrian fighters it backs “are now creating chaos” in Tal Abyad to displace the Kurds who live in the town.
“Turkey is responsible for civilian casualties in the region it controls,” Bali tweeted.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Turkey last month invaded northeastern Syria to push out Syrian Kurdish fighters, who it considers terrorists for their links to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.
Earlier on Saturday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Christian fighters will now oversee security in a northern Syrian region that has witnessed fighting between Turkey-backed troops and Kurdish-led militiamen.
The SDF said the deployment will take place in villages close to the town of Tal Tamr in the Khabur river region. That area is home to Syria’s dwindling Christian Syriac and Assyrian communities.
Kurgen
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