Car bomb kills eight civilians in northern Syria – Turkey

A vehicle rigged with explosives blew up in a market in a northern Syrian village of Suluk on Monday, killing eight people and wounding others, Turkey's defence ministry said.

"Eight civilians were slaughtered in Tal Abyad by PKK/ YPG terror group and many others were injured in a bomb attack. The attack was carried out with a vehicle loaded with bombs," the ministry said.

Syrian regime news agency SANA, however, said the blast occurred in the village near the Turkish border, putting the death toll at five people and reporting several more were wounded.

A similar death toll was also given by the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor. The observatory, which has a network of activists in Syria, said 20 others were also wounded.

Suluk is controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters and is near the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad in Raqqa province.

Turkish troops and Turkey-backed fighters captured Tal Abyad and Suluk from PKK-YPG terrorists in October. That was during Turkey's intervention of northeastern Syria, in which it pushed back the terrorists from some border areas.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK –– listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU –– has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.  

Turkey-Russia meet on Syria

Also on Monday, a Turkish team was in Russia for talks on the conflicts in Syria and Libya, following reports that tens of thousands more Syrians were heading to Turkey, which already hosts the world's biggest refugee population.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday more than 80,000 civilians in Syria's northwest Idlib province were migrating towards Turkey after Russian and Syrian regime forces intensified their air strikes in the area in recent days.

Turkey-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said on Monday 120,000 Syrians in south Idlib were fleeing towards the border.

Turkey already hosts about 3.7 million Syrians, the largest refugee population in the world. It worries about a new influx.

"We are putting up every effort with Russia for the attacks to stop, and we will continue to do so," Erdogan said in his comments on Sunday.

Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad has vowed to recapture the Idlib region, the last significant area of Syria still under militant and rebel control, after more than eight years of civil war that has killed some 400,000 people and displaced millions.