Suicide Truck Bomb Rocks Islamist-Held District in Aleppo

23 Killed, Mostly From Ahrar al-Sham

A suicide truck bomb hit the Sukari District of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo today, killing at least 23 people, 19 of them from Ahrar al-Sham, and the other four described as civilian bystanders near a checkpoint run by the rebel faction.

Ahrar al-Sham is an Islamist rebel faction, and their leadership has expressed allegiance to al-Qaeda. Despite this, the group is also heavily bankrolled by the Saudi government, and as a consequence is presented as a relatively “moderate” Islamist group.

There was no official claim of responsibility after today’s bombing, but ISIS has repeatedly targeted Ahrar al-Sham in fighting over territory in and around Aleppo, and is the probable culprit, as they have favored truck bombings in the past.

Before the Syrian Civil War began, Aleppo was the nation,s financial and industrial capital, though years of fighting has left much of the city destroyed, leaving islands of remaining territory held by various factions separated by the wreckage of a once great city.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.