Car bomb in Turkish-held part of Syria kills at least 5

A war monitor says a car bomb in a vegetable market in a northern region of Syria held by Turkish-led forces has killed at least five people and wounded 10.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blast happened Wednesday in Afrin, a town captured from Syrian Kurdish fighters early last year. The area is controlled by Turkish-backed Syrian fighters and has seen sporadic violence since then.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency says nine people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack.

Turkey launched another cross-border operation earlier this month, invading northeastern Syria to push out Syrian Kurdish fighters who had partnered with U.S. forces against the Islamic State group.

Ankara views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as an extension of the decades-long Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.