At least 20 people, most of them women, have been killed in a car bomb attack in northern Syria, the country’s presidency says.
The Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said a car filled with explosives blew up on a main road in the southern outskirts of the city of Manbij as a flat-bed lorry carrying about 30 agricultural workers drove past.
The agency had earlier put the death toll at 15, including 11 women and three girls. Another 15 women and girls were wounded, some of them critically.
The presidency vowed to ensure that the perpetrators of what it described as a “terrorist” attack would face the “most severe punishments”.
There was no immediate claim from any armed groups for the bombing, which was the deadliest since rebel forces overthrow president Bashar al-Assad in December.
The commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led alliance backed by the US which controls much of north-eastern Syria, condemned the attack as a “criminal act” that threatened the “unity of the national fabric”.
Earlier, his media chief alleged that such bombings were among the “fundamental tactics” used by Turkish-backed factions known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), which the SDF has been battling in the Manbij area over the past two months.