DAMASCUS, June 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of nine people, including four Turkey-backed rebels, were reportedly killed on Wednesday in two car bombings in Syria's northern enclave of Afrin, a monitor group reported.
One of the car bombs went off near a position of the Turkish forces on the road near the Deirsim hospital, while the second one exploded at the Kawa al-Hadad roundabout in the city center of Afrin, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based watchdog group said the Turkish forces closed the entrances of the city and the shops inside were closed as the militants fanned out following the explosions.
The explosions came hours after fighting erupted between the rebel groups in control of Afrin, the Observatory said, adding that two groups clashed with each other by machineguns.
Still, no party claimed responsibility for the explosions and the death toll is likely to rise as many people are in critical conditions, according to the Observatory.
The Turkey-backed militants took control of all of Afrin in March after battles with the Kurdish People Protection Units (YPG), who were in control of that predominantly Kurdish enclave in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Turkey pushed an offensive, known as "Olive Branch," to dislodge the Kurdish fighters from Afrin, as Ankara regards the YPG as a terror group due to its links with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is also branded as a terror group in Turkey.
