Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters captured the area last October when Ankara invaded northeastern Syria to drive away Syrian Kurdish fighters from the shared border Nearly half a million people have been killed in Syria’s nine-year war which began as a popular uprising against the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad BEIRUT: A car bomb killed at least seven civilians in a Turkish-controlled area of northeastern Syria on Saturday, Syria’s state-run news agency and a war monitor reported. SANA said the blast went off at the southern entrance to the city of Ras Al-Ayn. Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters captured the area last October when Ankara invaded northeastern Syria to drive away Syrian Kurdish fighters from the shared border. Ankara views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists for their links to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. The fighters had however partnered with the US against the Daesh group. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syria war monitor, said seven people were killed and ten of others were injured in the car-bomb explosion near the industrial area in the south of Ras Al-Ayn city. No further details were immediately available. Nearly half a million people have been killed in Syria’s nine-year war which began as a popular uprising against the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad and turned into an armed insurgency following a brutal crackdown.