An explosion at a weapons depot in northwest Syria’s Idlib province killed five people and wounded nine others on Wednesday, security forces said in a statement.
The Idlib region was a bastion of rebel and jihadist groups including foreign fighters before Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December in a lightning offensive.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former armed faction once led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, was the dominant group in the region before Assad’s overthrow, and some groups of foreign fighters still have bases there.
The explosion in the town of Kafr Takharim was “caused by a warehouse containing missiles and ammunition, and occurred due to work underway” at a site nearby, the Idlib security forces said, adding that five site workers were killed.
State television reported the same toll, without saying what caused the blast.
Nine other people were injured, the security forces added.
Images circulating online showed widespread destruction, fire and damage to farmland, while videos showed shrapnel reaching shops and residential buildings.
In August, four people were killed in an explosion at a weapons depot on the outskirts of Idlib, authorities said.
A month earlier, at least 12 people were killed and about 120 others wounded in a series of explosions at an arms depot belonging to Uyghur-dominated jihadist group the Turkistan Islamic Party in the town of Maaret Misrin in Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
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© Agence France-Presse
