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While one person was killed in a shooting in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, 12 others died in two car bombings in northern Aleppo.
At least 12 people have been killed and 29 injured in two car bombings in northwestern Syria, according to rescuers and journalists.
Sunday’s successive explosions took place in the town of Azaz and another village about 50 km (30 miles) away, the two areas held by Syrian rebel fighters allied with Turkey.
Turkey and allied Syrian fighters control large parts of northern Syria and are at odds with government troops and Kurdish-led forces, who are considered “terrorists” by Ankara. Rebel-controlled areas are the scene of recurrent attacks rarely claimed by a single camp.
Syrian Civil Defense, a voluntary relief group operating in rebel-held areas of Syria, said it had responded to 11 explosions in the northwest of the country since early January, before Sunday, where at least 11 people were killed. .
12 people were killed and 29 others injured in two successive car bombs that struck two towns in the northern Aleppo countryside today. It comes less than 24 hours after an explosion struck the city of Afrin killing 8 people and injuring 27. #WhiteHelmets responded to incidents pic.twitter.com/O85jbRCicq
– The white helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) January 31, 2021
Separately, the Syrian state news agency SANA said that a Syrian was killed on Sunday and four were wounded in the northeastern city of Hassakeh in Deir Az Zor province, after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) opened fire on pro-government demonstrators protesting a siege on their neighborhood. The area is known as the Security Square and is controlled by government forces.
Video of the rally in Hassakeh showed dozens of men gathering in a street on a rainy day as the fire erupted above their heads. The men started chanting: “With our souls, our blood, we sacrifice for you Bashar”, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A Kurdish news agency, Hawar, said security forces at a city checkpoint came under fire, prompting its operatives to respond to the source of the attack. The clashes resulted in the death of a member of government security, the agency said.
The various accounts could not be immediately reconciled or independently verified in the town where the two security forces are present.
The Kurds, Syria’s largest ethnic minority, carved out a semi-autonomous enclave for themselves in northeastern Syria after the war started in 2011. In the region, they run their own affairs and control most of the the country’s oil resources.
In the towns of Hassakeh and Qamishli, they share control with government forces – who are present in security zones, near the airport and in some neighborhoods. Both towns have a significant Kurdish population.
There was no immediate comment from the Kurdish forces. But Kurdish officials have previously said they are reacting to government troops who have imposed a siege and harass Kurdish-dominated neighborhoods in the northwestern province of Aleppo, where the government is in control.
Russia, which patrols northeastern Syria and is a key supporter of the Syrian government, has offered to mediate between Kurdish forces and the government.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces besieged Kurdish areas in northwest Aleppo for months, preventing food and medical supplies from entering. Kurdish forces have responded by imposing a siege on government-controlled areas in Hassakeh and to a lesser extent in Qamishli over the past 21 days.
The Observatory said it was not clear whether the person killed in Hassakeh was a civilian or a member of government forces.
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