Dozen killed, 50 wounded as blast rocks NW Aleppo Province

An explosion has reportedly hit the northwestern outskirts of Syria’s Aleppo Province, leaving at least a dozen people dead and some 50 others injured.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast took place at a checkpoint near the town of Afrin on Sunday.

It further noted that most of the wounded were bus drivers, passengers and businessmen, some of them in critical condition.

Later in the day, Syrian media said a car bomb attack hit the city of Azaz, located northwest of Aleppo.

According to the reports, one person has been killed and an unspecified number of people injured in the explosion.

The blasts come as Takfiri militants occupying Aleppo City’s eastern parts have in recent weeks launched fatal assaults against civilians and government forces in the west.

The surge in such attacks comes as the terrorists have been taking heavy blows from Syrian government forces on the Aleppo battle ground.

Late last month, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned that the attacks by Takfiri militants could amount to war crimes. He voiced his shock at the indiscriminate use of heavy weapons by the militants during their onslaught on civilian suburbs in western Aleppo.

Syria uncovers terrorists’ arms depot in Hama

Separately on Saturday, Syrian army forces seized a warehouse used by foreign-backed militants to store weapons in the west-central city of Hama as part of anti-terror operations underway across the Arab country.

Syria’s official SANA news agency reported on Friday that arms and military equipment such as rockets and mortars were confiscated from a house in Abi al-Fidaa, a suburb of Hama, while a number of terrorists were arrested.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Defense Ministry said several militants were killed in the districts of Buwaida, Tal al-Nasseriye, Kafr Zeta, al-Lahaya, al-Latamneh on the outskirts of Hama.

Some armored and military vehicles were destroyed in the operations, the ministry said, adding that Mahmud Qadur, a military chief of the so-called Free Syrian Army, succumbed to his injuries sustained during the scuffles with the government soldiers on the northern edge of Hama.

Additionally, there were fierce clashes between the Syrian troopers and terrorists from Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, on the eastern outskirts of Homs Province.

Similar confrontations were also reported between the army and Daesh Takfiri terrorists in some neighborhoods across the city of Dayr al-Zawr.

Daesh fired mortars during the clashes and wounded several civilians. The injured were then taken to hospital.

Furthermore, Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Ahed news website reported scuffles between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Daesh elements in Hasakah.

Since March 2011, Syria has been gripped by deadly militancy blamed on some Western countries and their allies in the Middle East region.

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