At least 68 people, including Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters died, dozens of others were wounded after two car bomb attacks by Daesh terrorists in northern Syria's al-Bab, reports said on Friday.
Those wounded in the first car bomb attack were brought to an evacuation point in the Turkish border province of Kilis, where Turkish ambulances were already waiting to refer the injured people to nearby hospitals.
A total of 42 people were brought to the Kilis State Hospital for medical treatment, while several others were sent to neighboring provinces, including Gaziantep.
Later on in the day, Syrian activists said that a second car bomb exploded near Syria's al-Bab captured by Turkey-backed FSA, killing at least 8 people.
The Turkey-backed opposition fighters on Thursday drove Daesh from al-Bab, the terrorist group's last significant stronghold in northwest Syria, along with two smaller neighbouring towns of Qabasin and al-Bezah, after weeks of street fighting.
The car bomb struck military and security offices in Sousian, which is behind the opposition lines about eight kilometers (five miles) northwest of al-Bab, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said.
Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield on August 24, 2016, declaring that it was exercising its rights to self-defense codified under the U.N. Charter Article 51. A National Security Council press release stated that the operation's objectives were to maintain border security and drive Daesh terrorists away from the Turkish-Syrian border. The operation, which began last summer, relies heavily on FSA fighters backed by Turkish artillery and air support.
Until now, Turkey and the FSA have cleared some of the main strongholds of Daesh, including Dabiq, Jarablus and al-Bab, and are likely to continue with clearing Manbij and Afrin of Democratic Union Party (PYD) terrorists, the PKK's Syrian offshoot.
