<p>Twenty-nine people were killed Tuesday by explosives in three separate incidents in parts of north Syria along the border with Turkey, a war monitor said.</p>.<p>There was no immediate link between the two car bombings near Al-Bab and in Afrin that killed a total of eight people, or the incident that claimed 21 lives in a minefield.</p>.<p>Syria's civil war has evolved into a complex conflict involving world powers and jihadists since it started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.</p>.<p>In the north of the country, Turkey and its Syrian proxies control several pockets of territory following three military incursions since 2016 against the Islamic State group and Kurdish fighters.</p>.<p>In the first incident, explosives planted in the car of a police chief on the outskirts of Al-Bab detonated and killed him, two other policemen and two civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.</p>.<p>Nineteen people were wounded, the Britain-based monitor added.</p>.<p>An AFP photographer saw the charred, mangled remains of a vehicle at the site of the explosion.</p>.<p>In the town of Afrin, a car bomb went off near a bakery, killing three people and wounding 16 others.</p>.<p>There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast.</p>.<p>There have been a string of attacks in Al-Bab since its capture by Turkish troops from IS in 2017.</p>.<p>Several have also hit Afrin, which Turkey and its Syrian proxies seized from Kurdish fighters in 2018.</p>.<p>Elsewhere in north Syria, a group of pro-Turkey fighters were killed overnight near the town of Ain Issa when they walked into a minefield laid by Kurdish-led forces, the monitor said.</p>.<p>They were among around 30 Turkey-backed combatants who had been trying to sneak into Muallaq village after sending in drones to bombard it, said the Observatory.</p>.<p>But they became ensnared in a minefield laid by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), killing 21 and wounding the rest.</p>.<p>UN humanitarian official Mark Cutts deplored "another horrific car-bomb in Al-Bab today with more civilian casualties".</p>.<p>"Car-bombs remain a deadly scourge in Syria," he tweeted.</p>.<p>The Observatory said the Al-Bab bomb was "likely" planted by an IS sleeper cell.</p>.<p>Al-Bab was one of the western-most strongholds of the territorial "caliphate" that IS in 2014 declared in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.</p>.<p>The US-backed SDF seized the last scrap of that territorial proto-state from the jihadists in eastern Syria in March last year.</p>.<p>But the jihadist group continues to carry out attacks through a network of sleeper cells operating in some regions it used to control.</p>.<p>Last year, Turkish soldiers and their Syrian proxies seized a 120-kilometre (70-mile) stretch of land from Kurdish fighters on the Syrian side of the border.</p>.<p>Since then, pro-Ankara fighters have been stationed to the north of Ain Issa, and sporadic skirmishes have broken out between them and SDF.</p>.<p>Syria's civil war has killed more than 380,000 people since March 2011.</p>
<p>Twenty-nine people were killed Tuesday by explosives in three separate incidents in parts of north Syria along the border with Turkey, a war monitor said.</p>.<p>There was no immediate link between the two car bombings near Al-Bab and in Afrin that killed a total of eight people, or the incident that claimed 21 lives in a minefield.</p>.<p>Syria's civil war has evolved into a complex conflict involving world powers and jihadists since it started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.</p>.<p>In the north of the country, Turkey and its Syrian proxies control several pockets of territory following three military incursions since 2016 against the Islamic State group and Kurdish fighters.</p>.<p>In the first incident, explosives planted in the car of a police chief on the outskirts of Al-Bab detonated and killed him, two other policemen and two civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.</p>.<p>Nineteen people were wounded, the Britain-based monitor added.</p>.<p>An AFP photographer saw the charred, mangled remains of a vehicle at the site of the explosion.</p>.<p>In the town of Afrin, a car bomb went off near a bakery, killing three people and wounding 16 others.</p>.<p>There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast.</p>.<p>There have been a string of attacks in Al-Bab since its capture by Turkish troops from IS in 2017.</p>.<p>Several have also hit Afrin, which Turkey and its Syrian proxies seized from Kurdish fighters in 2018.</p>.<p>Elsewhere in north Syria, a group of pro-Turkey fighters were killed overnight near the town of Ain Issa when they walked into a minefield laid by Kurdish-led forces, the monitor said.</p>.<p>They were among around 30 Turkey-backed combatants who had been trying to sneak into Muallaq village after sending in drones to bombard it, said the Observatory.</p>.<p>But they became ensnared in a minefield laid by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), killing 21 and wounding the rest.</p>.<p>UN humanitarian official Mark Cutts deplored "another horrific car-bomb in Al-Bab today with more civilian casualties".</p>.<p>"Car-bombs remain a deadly scourge in Syria," he tweeted.</p>.<p>The Observatory said the Al-Bab bomb was "likely" planted by an IS sleeper cell.</p>.<p>Al-Bab was one of the western-most strongholds of the territorial "caliphate" that IS in 2014 declared in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.</p>.<p>The US-backed SDF seized the last scrap of that territorial proto-state from the jihadists in eastern Syria in March last year.</p>.<p>But the jihadist group continues to carry out attacks through a network of sleeper cells operating in some regions it used to control.</p>.<p>Last year, Turkish soldiers and their Syrian proxies seized a 120-kilometre (70-mile) stretch of land from Kurdish fighters on the Syrian side of the border.</p>.<p>Since then, pro-Ankara fighters have been stationed to the north of Ain Issa, and sporadic skirmishes have broken out between them and SDF.</p>.<p>Syria's civil war has killed more than 380,000 people since March 2011.</p>