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Explosion at Turkey-Syria Border Kills Dozens

Graphic video has emerged of the huge explosion that killed a reported 29 people near the Syrian Bab al-Salama checkpoint.
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A car bomb attack at a northern Syrian border crossing into Turkey killed at least 29 people today and left dozens wounded, according to local activists.

The huge explosion happened at a garage near the Syrian Bab al-Salama checkpoint.

Watch the VICE News report Syria: Wolves of the Valley here.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the Syrian conflict through a network of local activists, was among the first to report the explosion. Video posted online by activists shows smoke and flames from the blast site and injured, including children, being carried away into waiting vehicles.

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SOHR said that there were five women and three children among the dead and that the death toll was likely to rise higher as many of the wounded were critically hurt. Another graphic video shows the immediate aftermath, with charred and bloodied corpses, some missing limbs, strewn across the ground amidst still-burning wreckage.

"At least 12 ambulances have transported wounded people into Turkey, the death toll is very high," one activist told Reuters.

A Turkish government official told The Associated Press that 48 of the injured were brought across the border for treatment, and added that 13 had died, but the remainder were now in local hospitals.

The area surrounding the bomb site is currently controlled by the Islamic Front rebel group, AP said. The Islamic Front is locked in fierce fighting with the jihadi Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

There have been a number of car bombings at border crossings since the Syrian conflict began. In February, an attack also near Bab al-Salem killed six and inured scores. The same month, 14 died in a blast in the town of Atmeh, and another 16 died in January at the nearby Bab al-Hawa crossing.

In 2013 at least 50 were killed and more than a dozen injured in twin explosions in the Turkish town of Reyhanli, just across the border.

The Syrian civil war developed from a mass uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's authoritarian rule in early 2011 into the bloodiest conflict of the decade. Anti-government rebel groups are now fighting Assad's troops as well jihadi groups like ISIS. Well over 100,000 have died since the fighting began, hundreds of thousands more have been injured, and millions have been driven from their homes.

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Islamist rebels are allegedly crucifying people in Syria. Read more here.

Follow John Beck on Twitter: @JM_Beck

Image via Flickr