Turkey says two killed in car bomb attack near Syria border

Dozens of civilians have lost their lives in a string of bombings to have hit Tel Abyad town

Tel Abyad town in north-eastern Syria has experienced a number of car bombs in recent months. AP

A car-bomb attack by the Kurdish YPG militia killed two people and wounded five on Sunday in the north-eastern Syrian town of Tel Abyad, near the Turkish border, the Turkish Defence Ministry said.

The Arab town, from which Turkish-backed forces last October pushed out the YPG in a major campaign led by the Turkish army, has experienced a series of car blasts that have killed dozens of civilians.

"The perpetrator was captured alive along with another terrorist who came to the area with a bomb-rigged vehicle for a second attack," the ministry said.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency earlier reported that four civilians had been killed in the attack.

Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist organisation linked to Kurdish insurgents on its own soil. The group was not immediately available for comment. Syrian Arab rebels accused the YPG of carrying out the blasts, which they say seek to sow fear in areas where Turkey has carved a sphere of influence.

The Arab inhabitants of the area look upon Ankara as their protector and accuse the Syrian Kurdish militia of pushing out the tribal population from the border areas in an attempt to change its demography.

The US-backed group denies these claims and says Turkey has expansionist designs. It also defends policies that its adversaries say discriminate against Arabs as redressing historic grievances as persecuted Kurds.