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Turkey arrests Syria bomb attack suspect

Turkey says it has arrested the suspect in a deadly bomb attack in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, alleging that the assailant is a member of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militant group.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday that a car bomb had struck a bus and taxi station in the Turkish-controlled town of al-Bab earlier in the day, killing 19 people — 13 of them civilians — and wounded 33 others.

On Sunday, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency lowered the death toll to “at least 18 civilians” and the wounded to “30 others.” It also quoted a brief statement from the Turkish Defense Ministry saying that Turkey’s security forces had managed to capture the terrorist behind the bombing.

“The perpetrator of the attack was caught after a successful operation by the National Intelligence Organization,” the ministry announced on Twitter.

Shortly after the attack it accused YPG militants of conducting the bombing, saying they “continue to target innocent civilians using the same methods as Daesh.”

There was no immediate reaction from the YPG.

The city of al-Bab was occupied by Turkish troops in February 2017 following the defeat of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in the area.

Now part of Turkey’s so-called buffer zone, al-Bab is located some 30 kilometers northeast of Aleppo.

On October 9, Turkey launched a cross-border offensive into northeastern parts of Syria in a declared attempt to create a 30-kilometer “safe zone” clear from the presence of YPG militants.

Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as being a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in the Anatolian country since 1984.

The Turkish government a so-called safe zone will pave the way for the safe return of some two million Syrian refugees, now living in Turkey, to the area.

The Syrian government has condemned the Turkish offensive as an act of aggression.

Turkey, however, has dismissed the concerns, saying it will continue to combat “terrorists.”