Fuel truck blast kills 43

A fuel truck exploded in the busy centre of a rebel-held town near Syria's border with Turkey yesterday, killing dozens of people and wounding dozens more, several sources said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 43 people, mostly civilians, were killed when the tanker blew up in front of a courthouse in the northern Syrian town of Azaz.

Dozens more had severe injuries, said the Observatory, which monitors the violence in the country.

In unsourced comments, Turkey's privately owned Dogan news agency said a car bomb planted by Islamic State was responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the militant group.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency cited a doctor in Azaz as saying at least 60 people had been killed and more than 50 wounded.

Video from the scene showed huge clouds of smoke rising from a street filled with debris and twisted metal, which bulldozers were working to clear.

Raging fires were burning in several vehicles, and the fire brigade was battling to put them out with a giant water tanker and hoses.

Syria's nearly six-year war has created a patchwork of areas of control across the country, and Azaz is a major stronghold of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The FSA is an alliance of moderate rebel groups whose fighters have, with Turkish military support, pushed Islamic State militants out of the border area.

The blast comes during a fragile nationwide ceasefire brokered by government ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey.

The truce came into effect on December 30, and is intended to pave the way for new peace talks in Kazakh capital Astana, which regime ally Iran is also helping organise.

But the ceasefire and the planned talks have been threatened by ongoing violence in the rebel-held Wadi Barada region outside Damascus, which is the main water source for the capital.

Overnight, the Observatory said seven Syrian soldiers and two civilians were killed in clashes, though the fighting appeared to have calmed by yesterday morning.

The government says Fateh al-Sham is present in Wadi Barada, and blames rebels there for cutting water to Damascus since December 22. Rebels deny the jihadist group is in the region and say the mains supply was severed after government strikes hit pumping facilities in the area.

The damage has left 5.5 million people in Damascus and its suburbs without water, according to the UN.

Yesterday, state media said maintenance teams had arrived in the area 1and were "prepared to enter" to begin repair work. A source close to the regime said a temporary ceasefire had been agreed to allow the repair crews to enter, though it could take days before the mains supply is restored.

More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.