Syrian activists: Car bomb in northern town; several wounded

BEIRUT – Syrian opposition activists say a car bombing in a town in northern Syria controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters has wounded several people.

There were no reports of deaths in the explosion.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said Friday’s blast in the town of Afrin occurred near the offices of a Turkey-backed rebel faction.

Afrin Now, an activist collective, quoted the Civil Defence in the town as saying as many as 25 people were wounded.

Activists also said that shortly after the initial explosion, two mortar shells wounded two people.

Turkey and allied Syrian fighters took Afrin last year, expelling Syrian Kurdish fighters considered terrorists by Ankara. The Turkish takeover set off a series of attacks against Turkey’s presence in the originally Kurdish-dominated areas.