BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A car bomb exploded late Friday in the centre of the flashpoint northern Syria town of Manbij, causing damage but no casualties, a war monitor said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

Manbij, which had for years been held by Kurdish-led forces, fell earlier this month to pro-Turkey armed groups.

The White Helmets rescuers group also reported the blast, posting on its Telegram channel late Friday: "A car bomb exploded outside the grand mosque in central Manbij."

The Observatory said it was the second such attack in days. On Tuesday, bombs in a car killed two people in Manbij, the war monitor said.

Friday's attack caused "material damage, but there were no immediate reports of human losses", it added.

Swathes of north and northeast Syria are controlled by a Kurdish-led administration whose de facto army, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded the fight that helped defeat Islamic State group jihadists in Syria in 2019.

Turkey accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) at home, which both Washington and Ankara consider a "terrorist" group.

Turkey has staged multiple operations in SDF areas since 2016, and Ankara-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in northern Syria in recent weeks.