Blast in Syrian town on Turkish border kills nearly 50

A car bomb ripped through a busy commercial district in a rebel-held Syrian town along the Turkish border Saturday, killing nearly 50 people in a huge explosion that damaged buildings and left rescuers scrambling to find survivors amid the wreckage, opposition activists said.

Rescuers and doctors said the explosion left nearly 100 wounded and burned. At least 50 were transported to the Turkish border town of Kilis after local hospitals were overwhelmed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Locals said a rigged tanker truck was the source of the explosion and blamed Islamic State militants, who have carried out attacks in the town before. The militant group has been increasingly pressed in Syria and Iraq, and has escalated its attacks against Turkey — which backs Syrian opposition fighters in a campaign against the group in northern Syria.

Azaz, only a couple of miles from the Turkish border, is a key town on a route used by opposition fighters moving between Syria and Turkey, and is a hub for antigovernment activists as well as many displaced from the recent fighting in Aleppo city. Activists say its pre-war population of 30,000 has swelled.

It is also sandwiched between rival groups, including Kurdish fighters to the west and Turkish-backed opposition groups to the east. Islamic State militants, who have tried to advance on the key border town before, have been pushed back farther east in recent months in the Turkish-backed offensive.

The bomb went off early Saturday afternoon outside a local courthouse and security headquarters operated by the opposition fighters who control the town, resident and activist Saif Alnajdi told the Associated Press from Azaz.

“It hit the busiest part of the town,” Alnajdi said.

A nationwide weeklong cease-fire has mostly held across most of Syria after Russia and Turkey, who support opposite sides of the conflict, reached an agreement late December. It is set to pave the way for peace talks between Assad’s government and the opposition in Kazakhstan later this month. The Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked group Fatah al-Sham Front are not included in the deal, according to the Syrian government.

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UPDATES:

10:35 a.m.: Updates death toll and adds details about the explosion

4:20 a.m.: Updated to raise death toll from 15 to 43.

This article was first published at 3:35 a.m.