A car bomb killed at least 20 people in the city of Norte of Manbij on Monday, Syria presidency said, marking the second attack there in three days and the most mortal in the country since Bashar Al-Assad was overthrown from power in December.
The presidency declaration said it would hold the perpetrators for what he described as a “terrorist attack.”
“This crime will not happen without the most severe punishment against their perpetrators to serve as an example against those who will try to manipulate the security of Syria or damage their people,” said the presidency.
There were no immediate claims for responsibility for the attack in Manbij, located about 30 kilometers from the Turkish border. At least 14 of the dead were women, according to a preliminary toll previously issued by the Civil Defense Rescue Service and 15 other women were injured.
The victims were agricultural workers and it is likely that the death toll would increase, said a civil defense official Reuters.
Manbij has changed hands numerous during the 13 -year civil war in Syria, more recently in December, when the groups backed by Turkish was captured from the SDF backed by the United States, led by the Kurda YPG militia.
The SDF had taken Manbij from the Islamic State in 2016.
On Saturday, a car bomb in Manbij killed four civilians and wounded nine others, including children, the Syrian state news agency Fury reported.
Assad was expelled from power on December 8 after an offensive of lightning by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was declared president of the transition from Syria last week.
