An explosion from an IED planted in a car killed three people including a child in the center of Afrin city, the Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) affiliated North Press Agency reported on Saturday.
The Turkish Defense Ministry started pointing fingers soon after.
“The terrorist organization PKK/YPG has added yet another bomb attack on innocent civilians in Afrin. The terrorists, who detonated a vehicle on the road used by civilians, killed 3 innocent civilians and injured 3 other civilians,” the Turkish ministry said in a tweet, adding their fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and YPG “targeting civilians” will continue.
Ankara considers the YPG to be the Syrian extension of the PKK, seen as a terrorist group in Turkey, and used this as a pretext for the nation’s invasion into Rojava.
The YPG, although ideologically inspired by PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, denies any links to the PKK.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies invaded Afrin in March 2018, forcing hundreds of thousands of people – mostly Kurds – to flee to other areas controlled by the YPG, especially Shahba, north of Aleppo.
The YPG and other armed Kurdish groups affiliated with it have fought the Turkish-backed militias in Afrin since losing the territory. Turkey has blamed several deadly explosions in the city on the YPG.
Turkey has conducted three military campaigns in northern Syria in the past several years, backing Syrian militia groups, and now controls Afrin, areas north of Aleppo, and pockets of territory within Rojava in the northeast.
Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the YPG for an attack on Shifa Hospital in Afrin, where 21 people were killed, 17 of which were civilians including children, and 23 others were injured.
However the Kurdish force denied the accusations and condemned the attack.
