Twin blasts leave 15 people dead in Syria

DAMASCUS, June 27 (Xinhua): At least 15 people were killed or wounded on Wednesday in two explosions that rocked Syria's northern Afrin enclave.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the explosions is believed to be caused by a booby-trapped vehicle that went off in a roundabout in the center of Afrin, while the cause of the second blast was unknown.

The two explosions came hours after fighting erupted between the rebel groups in control of Afrin, the Observatory said, adding that two rebel groups clashed with each other with machineguns.

Still, no party claimed responsibility for the explosions and it is unknown whether the casualties are rebel fighters or civilians.

The Turkey-backed militants took control of all of Afrin in March after battles with the Kurdish People Protection Units (YPG), who were in control of that predominantly Kurdish enclave in the northern countryside of Aleppo.

After storming Afrin, many Syrian Kurdish families fled to nearby Kurdish areas and government-controlled towns amid reports of discrimination by the rebels against the residents of Afrin.

Turkey pushed an offensive, known as "Olive Branch," to dislodge the Kurdish fighters from Afrin, as Ankara regards the YPG as a terror group due to its links with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is also branded as a terror group in Turkey.

Earlier, deadly air strikes pounded rebel-held towns across southern Syria on Wednesday, as relief groups sounded the alarm over a Russian-backed push for the region and its main city Daraa.

The violence has already ravaged civilian infrastructure in opposition towns, with three hospitals forced to shut down because of heavy raids.

As the humanitarian situation grows increasingly dire, aid organisations from the Red Cross to UNICEF called for more to be done to prevent civilian casualties.

The south is meant to be protected by a ceasefire put in place last year by Russia, Jordan, and the United States, but President Bashar al-Assad has set his sights on retaking the area.

After a week of air strikes and artillery fire on rebel towns across Daraa province, his troops turned to the opposition-held half of the provincial capital on Tuesday.