A car bomb ripped through a busy commercial district in a rebel-held Syrian town along the Turkish border on Saturday, killing nearly 50 people in a huge explosion that damaged buildings and left rescuers scrambling to find survivors amid the wreckage, opposition advocates said.
Rescuers and doctors said the explosion was so large that there were nearly 100 people wounded and burned. More than 50 wounded were transported to the Turkish border town of Kilis for treatment, as local hospitals could not cope.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
Locals said a rigged tanker caused the explosion and blamed Islamic State militants, who have carried out attacks in the town before.
The extremists have been increasingly pressed in Syria and Iraq, and have escalated their attacks against Turkey, which backs Syrian opposition fighters in a campaign against the group in northern Syria.
Azaz, only a few kilometers from the Turkish border, is a key town on a route used by opposition fighters moving between Syria and Turkey, and is a hub for anti-government activists as well as many displaced from the recent fighting in Aleppo.
The bomb went off early on Saturday afternoon outside a local courthouse and security headquarters operated by opposition fighters who control the town, resident Saif Alnajdi told reporters from Azaz.
“It hit the busiest part of the town,” Alnajdi said.
A medical worker speaking to a local media outlet, al-Jisr, said many charred bodies, and body parts mixed with bones and mud, were piled up in local hospitals.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 48 people were killed, including 14 fighters and guards of the local courthouse, adding that the explosion was caused by a rigged water or fuel tanker, which explained the large blast and high death toll.
The opposition-operated local Azaz Media Center and Shabha Press Agency put the death toll at 60, adding that search and rescue operations continued for hours after the explosion.
Rescue workers were still working to identify and remove the bodies from the area, suggesting that the death toll was not final, Alnajdi said, adding that some of the severely wounded were transported across the border into the Turkish town of Kilis for treatment.
Footage shared online showed a large plume of black smoke rising above a chaotic street with the sound of gunfire in the background as onlookers gathered around the site.
The court house and the security headquarters were damaged, as well as the Red Crescent and municipality offices, according to sources in the area.
Many rebels and civilians who were pushed out of Aleppo during a massive government offensive late last year have resettled in Azaz.
Syrian Kurdish forces control territory to the west of Azaz, and have often tried advancing toward the town, causing friction with Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters.
To the east, opposition fighters backed by Turkey have been pushing back Islamic State extremists, gaining territory and advancing on the extremist-stronghold town of al-Bab, further east.
A nationwide week-long cease-fire has mostly held across most of Syria after Russia and Turkey, who support opposite sides of the conflict, reached an agreement late last month.
It is set to pave the way for peace talks between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and the opposition in Kazakhstan later this month.
The Islamic State group and al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Sham Front are not included in the deal, according to the Syrian government.
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