Multiple bomb attacks kill 2 in northwestern Syria

By Omer Koparan and Adham Kako

AZAZ, Syria (AA) - Two civilians were killed and another 22 wounded on Saturday in four simultaneous bomb attacks in northwestern Syria, according to local security sources.

The attacks were carried out by bomb-laden motorcycles at the center of the opposition-held cities of Azaz, Al-Bab, Jarabulus and Akhtarin near the Turkish border, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, but security sources believe that the YPG/PKK terrorist group was responsible for the violence.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed or displaced in the conflict, mainly by regime airstrikes targeting opposition-held areas.

Since 2016, Turkey conducted two major military operations in northwestern Syria -- Operations Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch -- to purge the region of Daesh and YPG/PKK, which is the Syrian branch of the terrorist organization PKK.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar