Deadly Blast Hits Near Syria-Turkey Border

A car bomb has exploded on the Syrian side of
the main Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey
killing at least seven and injuring many more,
according to Turkish news agency Dogan. The explosion on Tuesday occurred at a
roadblock manned by brigades at the entrance
of the rebel-held crossing, several hundred
metres from the Turkish side, Syrian
opposition activists on the border said. Pictures taken by activists on the scene
showed several burnt and mangled cars and
an engine block that apparently flew to the
side of the road from the vehicle. “The objective is to destabilise security at the
crossing. The casualties are all civilians, from
the people queuing to cross,” Omar Aref, one
of the activists, said. Aref also told Reuters news agency that the
casualties were all civilians. In the deadliest incident, a bomb exploded on
February 11 in the area that lies between the
Turkish and Syrian control posts and killed 13
people, among them three Turks. “This is indicative of a worsening situation
right across the border,” our correspondent
said. Tuesday’s car bombing near the Bab al-Hawa
crossing came a day after Turkey shot down a
Syrian helicopter that it said had violated
Turkish airspace. The aircraft had landed inside Syrian territory. The Syrian army said the shooting was “hasty”
and accused the Turkish government, which
backs the uprising against Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad, of trying to escalate tensions
along the border. In a related development, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported
on Tuesday that one of the two helicopter
pilots had been killed. The monitoring network cited videos
circulated by opposition fighters showing
rebels surrounding the body of one of the
men who had parachuted from the helicopter. Elsewhere in Syria, loyalist troops seized
control of parts of a town located on the
strategic road linking Damascus to the
international airport, SOHR said on Tuesday. Clashes pitting rebels against troops raged on
in the town of Shabaa, where fighting on
Monday killed at least 11 opposition fighters. State news agency SANA said loyalists “seized
control last night of the town of Shabaa, after
a special operation that was speedy and
surgical, and which was aimed at capturing
the most dangerous terrorist groups there”. Al-Manar, the Lebanese TV station of Assad’s
ally Hezbollah, said loyalists found “a 500-
metre tunnel parallel to the Damascus airport
road, that the terrorists were using to hide and
fire … from”. Al-Manar screened footage it said was taken
inside Shabaa. It also showed footage of the advancing army,
whose tanks fired at buildings in the town. The Syrian army has struggled for months to
eliminate rebels positioned around Damascus.
[AlJazeera]