ANKARA 

At least 40 civilians, including 11 children, were killed on Tuesday in a YPG/PKK terrorist attack in northwestern Syria, Turkey's Defense Ministry said.

At least 47 others were also wounded in the attack in the Afrin city center carried out using a bomb-rigged fuel tanker, the ministry said in a tweet. 

Many buildings were damaged on Raju Street where the fuel tanker exploded, and medical personnel took the wounded to hospitals in the center of Afrin. 

In January 2018, Turkey launched a major military operation – Operation Olive Branch – to rid Afrin of YPG/PKK terrorist elements, and liberated the city and province that March.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched a trio of successful anti-terrorist operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable peaceful settlement of locals: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018) and Peace Spring (2019).

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.