At least 14 people were killed in a truck bomb explosion in the Turkish-controlled town of Al-Bab in northwest Syria, war monitors, activists and doctors said.

The explosion on Tuesday in the vicinity of a bus station injured at least 40 persons, some seriously, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in the United Kingdom.

Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmet, a group operating in rebel-kept parts of Syria that is searching and rescue, said that a rescue operation has begun.

A witness said that when a large truck bomb dropped in a crowded area of the city controlled by rebel factions with Turkish backing.

Videos and images distributed by social media activists showed large smoke feathers, fires, and damaged buildings that were rising from the blast site.

There was no immediate charge for the car bombing, but since the capture by Turkish troops of the Islamic State group in 2017 Al-Bab has been attacked by a range of terrorist groups.

 

The town, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo, was one of the western strongholds of the armed group's self-proclaimed "Caliphate" territory.

 

In March of last year, the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces seized the last scrap of the group's statelet in eastern Syria.