Car bomb hits Syria-Turkey border crossing
At least 12 people reported injured as explosion rocks rebel-controlled region
Syrian activist groups say a car bomb has exploded at a crossing point along the country’s volatile border with Turkey.
At least a dozen people were reported to have been wounded and evicted to nearby hospitals, Syrian opposition activists said.
The crossing, located in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, has been under control of rebels fighting against President Bashar Assad’s forces since last year.
The frontier area near the Turkish border has seen heavy fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces, with the violence spilling over into Turkey on a number of occasions.
On Monday, a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Syrian military helicopter on Monday after it entered Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings to leave, an official said.
The helicopter strayed 2 kilometers (more than 1 mile) into Turkish airspace, but crashed inside Syria after being hit by missiles fired from the jet, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, told reporters in Ankara.
A number of mortar shells from the Syrian conflict have occasionally rained down on the Turkish side of the border as well. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Damascus in the past that his country would not tolerate any violation of the border by Syrian forces.