File photo: Syrian army units deploy with their heavy weapons in the countryside of the city of al-Bab in the Aleppo governorate on November 3, 2019. (Photo: AFP)

DAMASCUS, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 people were killed in an explosion that hit the rebel-held city of al-Bab in northern Syria on Saturday, a war monitor reported.

Nine of those killed were civilians while the rest are rebels as a car bomb ripped through a parking lot in al-Bab, a city that is controlled by the Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo province in northern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The death toll could likely rise as there are 33 wounded people, some of whom are in critical condition.