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The car detonated next to a vehicle carrying mostly female
agricultural workers on the outskirts of the city of Manbij.
The dead included 18 women and one man, a nurse at the hospital,
Mohammad Ahmad, told The Associated Press. Another 15 women were
wounded, some of them in critical condition, according to the
local Syrian civil defense.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.
It was the seventh car bomb explosion in Manbij in just over a
month, said Munir Mustafa, the deputy director of civil defense.
Manbij in northeastern Aleppo province continues to witness
violence even after the downfall of President Bashar Assad in
December.
Turkish-backed factions, known as the Syrian National Army, have
clashed with the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic
Forces. The factions took the city from the SDF in early
December during a lightning insurgency that toppled President
Bashar Assad.
A resident said the car that detonated was parked on the
roadside. The recurring attacks have forced residents to become
more vigilant, he said.
“There are efforts from the people of Manbij to focus on
protecting some neighborhoods as well as setting up surveillance
cameras in the main neighborhoods of the city,” Jameel al-Sayyed,
a Manbij activist and journalist said.
Mustafa warned that the attacks in Aleppo province near Syria's
second city are a threat to Syria's progress to bring about
post-war security and economic recovery. Most of the explosions
took place at night.
“The continued attacks on Syrian civilian areas and targeting
civilians while they are trying to recover from the effects of
the war of the defunct Assad regime ... threaten their lives,
deepens their humanitarian tragedy, undermines educational and
agricultural activities and livelihoods, and worsens the
humanitarian situation in Syria,” Mustafa said.
A car bombing in Manbij on Saturday killed four civilians and
wounded nine, state news agency SANA reported, citing civil
defense officials.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
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