At least 43 people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the
rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz, near the Turkish border, reports
say.
The explosion occurred outside a courthouse in the town, some
just 7km (four miles) from the Turkish frontier.
Azaz has recently been targeted by so-called Islamic State (IS).
The latest blast is the worst since a nationwide ceasefire -
brokered by Russia and Turkey. IS is not included in the truce,
which has mainly held.
No group has yet said it carried out the bombing, which according
to some reports may have killed as many as 60 people and
injured many more.
The activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six
rebels were among the dead, with the rest believed to be
civilians.
IS has tried several times to take the town it originally held it in
2013.
It is a major stronghold of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army.
It has been contested by competing factions, with the Turkish
government seeking to ensure that neither IS nor the Kurdish
rebels it opposes manage to take control of it.
Thousands of people displaced from elsewhere in the province
have settled in Azaz.
They include those from Aleppo, which the government took from
the rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad late last year.
Twenty-five people were killed in a car bomb attack on rebel
headquarters in November. And 17 others died in a similar attack
on a rebel checkpoint in October.
IS has been blamed for the attacks.
Russia, along with Turkey and Iran, is now pushing for peace talks
to be held later this month in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.
Source : BBC news
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