Car bomb near Syria-Turkey border crossing kills at least 20: witnesses

At least 20 people, mostly Syrian rebel fighters, were killed after a car bomb exploded on Thursday near the Turkish-Syria border, witnesses say.

File photo: Rescuers and firefighters working at a site of a bombing in Damascus Source: AAP/SANA

At least 20 people, mostly Syrian rebel fighters, were killed after a car bomb exploded on Thursday near a checkpoint close to the Bab al Salam crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in northern Syria, two witnesses said.

They said the blast took place near a checkpoint manned by a group of Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Jabhat al Shamiya close to a car depot nearly two km (one mile )away from the border crossing, a major conduit for traffic between northern Syria into Turkey.

The Bab al Salam crossing is close to the city of Azaz, a major stronghold of Turkish-backed moderate Syrian rebel fighters involved in a major operation to the east against Islamic State militants' remaining presence along the border.

Syria's Assad: Taking Aleppo will push 'terrorists' back to Turkey - newspaper

Taking the city of Aleppo from rebel forces will be a springboard for Syria's army to push the "terrorists" back to Turkey, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Russian newspaper on Friday.

"You have to keep cleaning this area and to push the terrorists to Turkey to go back to where they come from, or to kill them. There's no other option," Assad said in an interview with Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"Aleppo is going to be a very important springboard to do this move."

Assad also said Turkey's actions in Syria constituted an invasion which was against international law and the country's civil war was now a conflict between Russia and the West.