North Syria violence kills 21 civilians

AL-BAB (Syria), Aug 20 (AFP): At least 21 civilians including children were killed Friday in separate bombardments in the latest flare-up of violence along Syria's northern border with Turkey, Kurdish authorities and a war monitor said.

The bloodshed comes against a backdrop of increased tensions pitting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies.

A pre-dawn strike by a Turkish drone that hit "a training centre for young girls" in the Shmouka area near Hasakeh in the northeast killed "four children and wounded 11", a statement from the semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with a broad network of sources on the ground, confirmed the toll.

In Al-Bab, a town under the control of Syrian factions loyal to Ankara, "artillery fire on a market by pro-regime forces killed 17 civilians-including six children-and wounded another 35," the Observatory said.

An AFP correspondent said the strike on the town near the Syria-Turkey border had ripped through the market, and described a jumble of body parts, strewn vegetables and mangled handcarts.

Residents and first responders rushed to assist and evacuate the wounded, the correspondent said.

A spokesman for the SDF, the Syrian Kurds' de facto army, denied any involvement.