Second suicide attack near al-Bab kills at least eight

Syrian opposition activists say a second car bomb exploded on Friday near the town of al-Bab in northern Syria, killing at least eight civilians.

The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) finally drove Daesh out of al-Bab on Thursday after a lengthy campaign. Daesh terrorists fled to nearby villages.

On Friday, they targetted the FSA in the village of Susian, about 10 kilometres north of al-Bab, according to the activist-run Aleppo Media Centre and Thiqa news agency.

Earlier on Friday, a car bomb attack in the same village killed at least 60 people, most of them were civilians who were lining up to return to the town after Daesh retreated.

Of those injured, 41 civilians were transferred to a hospital in the southeastern Turkish province of Kilis on the border with Syria.

On Thursday, the Turkish-backed FSA declared that its forces had retaken al-Bab, formerly a Daesh stronghold.

While trying to locate and defuse anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance left by Daesh, two Turkish soldiers were killed and three others wounded when a landmine exploded south of al-Bab.

TRT World's Abubakr Al Shamahi has more details on the first attack.

Clearing Daesh out of al-Bab was one goal of Operation Euphrates Shield, launched by Turkey in August 2016 to secure its border with Syria.

After al-Bab

"Almost all of al-Bab was taken under control and our forces have entered the centre of the town," Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik said on Thursday.

He said search and detection activities are underway in the besieged town.

"After those efforts [are] finished, we will be able to say the town is completely cleared from Daesh. So, we don't have much time to continue, and the operation got a success as of today," he added.

The fight against Daesh in northern Syria is now expected to move on to towns where the militants fled or still have a presence and will eventually zero in on the terrorist group's de facto capital of Raqqa.

TRT World's Shamim Chowdhury has a timeline of Turkish operations in northern Syria.

Iraqi air strikes in Syria

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi on Friday said that Iraq's air force carried out its first air strikes on Daesh targets inside Syria.

"We are determined to chase terrorism that tries to kill our sons and citizens wherever it is found," Abbadi said.

"So we gave orders to the air force command to strike Islamic State (Daesh) positions in Hosaiba and Albu Kamal inside Syrian territory as they were responsible for recent bombings in Baghdad," he said.

The targetted areas are part of Deir Ezzor province east of Syria, which has been under Daesh control since 2014, except small areas held by regime forces.