DAMASCUS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb went off on Sunday in the rebel-held Afrin city in northern Syria, killing five civilians and four militants, a war monitor reported.

The bombing also left dozens wounded as it hit a popular marketplace in the city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Afrin, located in the northern countryside of Aleppo Province, is controlled by the Turkey-backed militant groups which captured it from the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) and its allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in March.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said the party behind the explosion is not yet known.

The tension between the Kurds and Turkey has hit a new high recently when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a military campaign will soon be launched in Kurdish-held areas on the eastern bank of Euphrates River in eastern Syria.

The U.S.-backed Kurdish groups urg ed the Syrian government to protect their areas against the Turkish threats amid reports that the United States is trying to pressure Turkey into dropping the idea of attacking the Kurdish areas.

Turkey regards the SDF and the YPG as terrorist groups over their link to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed by the United States, Turkey and the EU as an terror organization. Enditem

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