The explosion, according to matching agency reports on Saturday in the city center in front of a gas station occurred. Tall Abjad is located in northern Syria, directly on the border with Turkey. At least 15 people were killed, more than 30 were injured, according to dpa, citing medical forces. The injured were taken to nearby Turkish hospitals because local capacity was insufficient to treat them.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, pro-Turkish fighters and civilians are among the victims. The bomb is said to have exploded in a car. Tall Abyad was the scene of fierce fighting after the invasion of northern Syria by Turkish troops. There had already been several explosions of car bombs in nearby towns in the past week.
Who is behind the attack, was initially unclear. Turkey blamed the Kurdish militia YPG and the banned Kurdish workers' party PKK on Saturday. The Turkish military, along with allied rebels, invaded Tall Abyad and other cities in the region in early October, forcing the Kurdish militia out of the area.
The Turkish troops also arrested members of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS). The captured fighters, who were apparently recruited to a large extent from European countries, Ankara now wants to send back to their home countries. "We are not a hotel for anyone's IS members," Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Saturday.
Soylu criticized that several European states had deprived IS suspects of their nationality. That was "unacceptable and irresponsible," said the Turkish politician. Some of the prisoners from the Northern Syria offensive came from Britain and the Netherlands. These countries made things too easy in this way, says Soylu.
He did not name concrete figures as to how many IS fighters it was. The Islamists had apparently fled the Syrian prison camps during the fighting in the border area with Turkey and had been captured by Turkish military. The camps had previously been guarded by the YPG-led Rebel Alliance SDF.