"Showing a much worse attitude than DAESH [Islamic State, terrorist organization banned in Russia], the PKK/YPG [the Kurdish Workers’ Party, the Kurdish People's Protection Units] terror group continues its car bombings aimed at civilians. The child murderers this time detonated a car bomb in Tel Halef village west of Ras al-Ayn, killing 17 people and wounding more than 20," the ministry wrote on Twitter.

Turkey began a cross-border operation in early October with a goal to create a safe zone where migrants could be moved after clearing the territory from YPG militia, which it considers an offshoot of PKK separatists, viewed by Ankara as terrorists.

The operation was halted under a ceasefire deal mediated by the United States on October 18 and stopped officially five days later after Ankara and Moscow reached a pact aimed at facilitating the withdrawal of Kurdish militia from an 18-mile border zone, outside the area of Operation Peace Spring. Since then, joint patrols of the border territory are conducted regularly by the Russian military police and the Turkish troops.