At least 45 people were killed and many others were injured in a village near al-Bab in Syria on Friday after a car bomb struck the Syrian rebels who were fighting the Islamic State (ISIS), according to medical officials.
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Reports state that a suicide bomber targeted a checkpoint manned by Free Syrian Army rebels which was crowded with civilians on early Friday in the Sousian village, which is located northwest of al-Bab.
Reports state that the Turkey-backed rebels in Syria were successful in driving ISIS' last in northwest Syria after weeks of fighting in the streets. Reports state that the ISIS militants were also driven away from two smaller neighbouring towns of Qabasin and al-Bezah, according to Al Jazeera reports.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the car bomb struck military and security offices in Sousian, which is behind the rebel lines about eight km northwest of al-Bab.
Several of the Syrian rebels were also killed on Thursday by a mine in al-Bab while they were clearing the town of unexploded ordnance after Islamic State retreated, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
Syria's civil war has been ongoing for two years pitching the Bashar al-Assad-led Syrian government against the Turkey-backed rebels. Assad is also backed by Russia, Iran and Shia militants.
Despite the war between these groups, both the sides along with a group of militias led by Kurdish forces have been fighting ISIS in the region. The Islamist terrorist organisation holds swathes of land in the northern and eastern Syria.
Turkey last year in August had openly supported a Syrian group of rebel factions fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner to drive ISIS from its border.
