A car bomb killed at least 15 people in the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Monday, the
second attack there in three days and Syria’s deadliest since Bashar al-Assad was toppled from power in December.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack in Manbij, located some 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border. The civil defence rescue service identified the dead as 14 women and one man, and said another 15 women were wounded.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) condemned the car bombing, accusing Turkey-backed factions of using such bombings and violence to intimidate local residents.
The victims were agricultural workers and the death toll was likely to increase, a civil defence official told Reuters.
Manbij has changed hands numerous times during Syria’s 13-year civil war, most recently in December when Turkish-backed groups captured it from the U.S.-backed SDF, which is led by the Kurdish YPG militia.
The SDF had taken Manbij from Islamic State militants in 2016.
On Saturday, a car bomb in Manbij killed four civilians and wounded nine others, including children, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
Assad was ousted from power on Dec. 8 after a lightning offensive by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, whose leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was declared Syria’s transitional president last week.
He is currently in Saudi Arabia on his first visit to the desert kingdom. Reports say he has already met Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler who has indicated support as Syria seeks to rebuild after 13 years of civil war.
The Syrian leader apparently chose Riyadh as his first overseas visit to show the importance he attaches to relations with that country. The visit is also part of the Syrian leader’s effort to win legitimacy for the regime he heads in Damascus, that could hopefully pave the way for the end of Western sanctions.
With Reuters inputs
