Report: Car bomb hits rebel checkpoint at Turkey-Syrian border

The wounded were likely part of the mass exodus of Syrian civilians, looking to flee the country’s ongoing civil war. 

{mosads}It remains unclear who was the target of the bombing, but the Bab al-Hawa checkpoint was manned by Islamic militants fighting alongside Syrian opposition forces. 

The border attack comes a day after Turkish F-16 fighters reportedly shot down a Syrian military helicopter after the aircraft crossed into Turkish airspace. 

It was continuously warned by our air defense but as the violation continued, it fell on Syrian soil [after] having been hit by missiles from our planes,” Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc told reporters in Ankara on Monday. 

Three Turkish F-16 fighters were launched from bases in Diyarbakır province in the southeastern part of the country, in response to sporadic firefights along the border region, recent news reports state. 

The fighters were conducting aerial surveillance missions over the town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkey-Syria border where the most intense fighting took place, reports state. 

Anakara and neighboring Jordan have repeatedly expressed concern that the ongoing Syrian civil war could spill over into their countries. 

Anti-government rebels have spent the last two years in a bloody campaign to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad. 

Last June, Turkish forces amassed several armored units along the Syrian border, equipped with anti-aircraft guns and self-propelled rockets, last June in response to the shootdown of the Turkish F-4. 

The attacks comes as Washington and Russia are working a deal to force Assad to hand over his chemical weapon stockpiles. 

Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to a framework that will begin the handover of Assad’s stockpiles to international control, led by the United Nations. 

The deal indefinitely delays proposed U.S. military action against Syria, in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks by the regime against opposition forces.

The threat of force eventually led to the eleventh-hour disarmament deal by Moscow, President Obama said on Saturday. 

But concerns over whether the Assad regime will comply with disarmament continue to raise concerns in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.