Dozens of people, including children, were killed in an enormous blast in the Syrian city of Afrin after a truck-borne bomb detonated in the middle of a crowded street. Turkey immediately pinned the blame on ‘Kurdish terrorists’.
The explosion went off in a marketplace near the city’s center on Tuesday afternoon, sending a vast fireball and a column of black smoke into the air from the fuel and bomb-laden truck, as was seen in video footage capturing both the moment of the bombing and its chaotic aftermath. Another 47 people were wounded in addition to the fatalities, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
Afrin: Over 40 dead, including women and children, in a particularly deadly bomb attack carried out by means of a truck loaded with fuel barrels. The Turks accuse the YPG. I’ll spare you the gruesome, bloody photos from the immediate aftermath. pic.twitter.com/B7EBVNz9JP
İnsanlık düşmanı PKK/YPG, Afrin’de yine masum sivilleri hedef aldı. Afrin şehir merkezinde sivillerin yoğun olduğu bir bölgede bomba yüklü yakıt tankeri ile saldırı düzenleyen teröristler, ilk belirlemelere göre en az 35 masum sivili katlettii, 30’dan fazla sivili de yaraladı. pic.twitter.com/KBnITo2EUc
— T.C. Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) April 28, 2020
While no group has yet taken responsibility for the attack, Ankara has pinned blame on the YPG, a Kurdish militia active in Syria which the Turkish government has deemed a terrorist organization. One suspect has been captured by Turkish forces, according to the governor of Turkey’s Hatay province, who said the man abandoned the truck after driving it to the busy marketplace. However, footage has since surfaced showing the vehicle still moving at the time of the attack, suggesting either that the suspect was not the driver, or had an accomplice.
UPDATE: Following the discovery of CCTV footage showing the arrival of the truck bomb in #Afrin, the alleged driver (who abandoned the VBIED at the site, before detonation) has been caught. pic.twitter.com/np6BJt9oKO
Exactly.
But ‘we have the attacker, he is part of YPG/PKK’ is easier to sell of course, when you (not you!) blame the Kurdish militia from the very 1st moment after the attack happened without any evidence.
It was a SVBIED. Does not exclude the YPG, but “evidence” is propaganda. pic.twitter.com/NZF5tllhnD
Mourning the many “civilian martyrs” who perished in the attack, Syrian state media reported a number of Turkish-backed “terrorists” were also killed. The militants have occupied Afrin – a Kurdish-majority city – since Turkey launched its cross-border ‘Operation Olive Branch’ in 2018, intended to clear away the YPG and allied militias who took control of the city when the Syrian government repositioned its forces several years prior. Though Ankara insists the offensive was directed at “terrorists,” as many as 200,000 civilians were also caught up in the fighting and forced to flee the city.
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