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Turkey, Kurdish Forces Blame Each Other for Syria Car Bombing

The Turkish government has blamed the Kurdish YPG militia and its allies in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), for a car bombing on Saturday that killed at least 13 people and injured around 30. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 14 people were killed in the bombing, including both pro-Turkey fighters and civilians. The bomb was detonated in a market in Tell Abiad, a formerly Kurdish-controlled town that Turkey seized last month in its cross-border operation to drive the YPG from the area. As of Sunday, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack. The Turkish Defense Ministry, in a statement on Twitter, said, “We condemn this inhuman attack of the bloody PKK/YPG terrorists who attacked the innocent civilians of Tell Abiad who returned to their homes and lands as a result of the Operation Peace Spring.” Meanwhile, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-allied alliance that has been administering the area for the past several years, whose main military component is the YPG, has blamed Turkey and its Syrian allies for the attack. An SDF spokesman said that Turkey was “creating chaos” with the bombing for the purpose of displacing the Kurds in the area.