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Car bomb in northern Syria kills 19 agricultural workers

FILE: Syrian citizens walk in front of buildings that were destroyed in Manbij, north Syria, March 31, 2018.
FILE: Syrian citizens walk in front of buildings that were destroyed in Manbij, north Syria, March 31, 2018. Copyright  Hussein Malla/Copyright 2018 The AP. All rights reserved.
Copyright Hussein Malla/Copyright 2018 The AP. All rights reserved.
By Kieran Guilbert
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Eighteen women and one man were killed and more than a dozen others injured in the explosion in the city of Manjib, first responders said.

At least 19 people were killed and several others injured on Monday when a car bomb exploded on the outskirts of a city in northern Syria, according to the local civil defence.

The car on the periphery of the city of Manjib — located east of Aleppo — detonated next to a vehicle carrying agricultural workers, killing 18 women and one man, said the civil defence, also known as the White Helmets.

Another 15 women were wounded in the explosion, and some of them are in critical condition, according to the first responders.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

It was the second deadly car bomb explosion in the area in three days. On Saturday, four civilians were killed and nine others were injured by a blast in Manjib's city centre, according to Syria's state news agency SANA.

Manbij continues to see fighting even after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December, as Turkish-supported factions known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) clash with the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The SNA had seized Manbij from the SDF in December, part of a push by Ankara to secure Syrian territory close to its border for a buffer zone.

Last week, the Syrian factions that outsed al-Assad in a lighting rebellion named former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa as the country's interim president.

Al-Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) organisation was once affiliated with al-Qaeda, has been in charge of the country since opposition forces swept into Damascus early on 8 December following a surprise offensive that lasted less than two weeks.

Additional sources • AP

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