A bomb exploded early Sunday at a market in a northern Syrian city controlled by pro-Turkish forces, killing eight people and wounding more than 20, a war observer said.

“A car bomb exploded in the middle of a popular market” in Azaz, Aleppo province, killing at least “eight people and wounding 23 others,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the death toll was provisional.

The UK-based Observatory, which has a network of sources across Syria, said the explosion caused “significant damage” and caused a fire, adding that ambulances and rescue workers were at the scene.

War in Syria erupted in 2011 after the Syrian government cracked down on peaceful protests and escalated into a deadly conflict involving jihadists and foreign troops.

The war has killed more than 507,000 people, displaced millions and severely damaged the country’s infrastructure and industry.

Turkey has launched successive military offensives in Syria, most of which have targeted Kurdish militants linked to Ankara’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies control a large swath of the border area, including several major towns such as Azaz.