ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 10 people were killed and 13 others were injured when a truck rigged with an explosive blew up in Azaz, northern Syria, a war monitor reported on Wednesday. Syria has seen a surge of violence over the past 24 hours.
The truck exploded at a military check-point in Azaz, north of Aleppo near the border with Turkey, the UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
The blast killed 10 people, including four members of the Syrian National Army (SNA), a rebel group backed by Ankara.
The perpetrator of the attack is not immediately clear.
This is the latest violent incident in a nation-wide escalation over the past 24 hours.
In the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor, pro-regime National Defense Forces launched an overnight attack killing two civilians and injuring five others, according to a statement from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of northeastern Syria (Rojava) and areas along the Euphrates, including the area where the attack occurred.
The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the SDF’s political wing, blamed Damascus and called for a cross-party condemnation.
“The Council calls on all political and national forces to condemn the criminal actions of the Damascus authority and its agencies,” read the SDC statement, adding that the attack “undermines the efforts to combat terrorism” and aids the Islamic State (ISIS), which is making a resurgence.
“ISIS is on pace to more than double the number of attacks it claimed in 2023,” the United States defense department said in its latest report on anti-ISIS operations released on August 1. US military command in the region (CENTCOM) said that with these attacks “ISIS is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability.”
The United Nations called for all parties in Syria to come together and find a resolution to Syria’s 13-year long civil war.
“We are against the new clashes in Syria. We hope the parties there will work together with the UN envoy Geir Pedersen to find a permanent solution to the Syrian crisis,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN, told Rudaw's Sinan Tuncdemir.
Control of Deir ez-Zor province, which borders Iraq, is split between the SDF and the Iran-backed Syrian regime. It is also home to many of the country’s key oilfields, such as Omar and Conoco, which the global coalition helps the SDF to control.
Pro-regime fighters frequently clash with the SDF in the strategic province. Following the latest attack, SDF-linked security forces in Deir ez-Zor announced a total curfew.