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Explosion at Uyghur rebel arms depot in Syria kills 12, injures 100
A series of explosions killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 100 at a weapons depot in northwestern Syria on Thursday, a monitor said.'Multiple blasts at a weapons and ammunition warehouse belonging to the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 100 in Maaret Misrin, in northern Idlib province,' said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Those killed included a woman and a child, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.
The TIP is a jihadist group active in the Idlib region made up of Uyghur fighters who joined the Syrian civil war to fight against former president Bashar al-Assad.
Syria's health ministry reported seven deaths and 157 wounded in the blasts, in a toll published by the official news agency SANA.
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Authorities did not immediately say what may have caused the explosions.
AFP images showed a huge plume of white smoke over the town, with several children visible among the injured.
The interior ministry said in a statement it had opened 'an urgent and deep investigation to determine the circumstances and causes of the explosion and hold those responsible to account'.
It added it was 'taking all necessary measures to avoid such incidents reoccurring in future'.
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