Asia

Home page

Asia

7 killed in car bomb blast in Syria's Homs

12 June 2014 17:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least seven people were killed and 55 others wounded on Thursday when a booby-trapped car went off in a pro-government neighborhood of the country's central province of Homs, APA reports quoting official SANA news agency.

The explosive-packed car was detonated in the Wadi al-Dahab neighborhood near a police residential compound with heavy population, leaving at least seven people dead and many others seriously injured, SANA said.

The car bomb has also left huge property losses in cars, shops and houses in the area, which is largely populated by people of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to whom the ruling elite in Syria belongs.

Homs, Syria's third largest province, was one of the first area to sympathize with anti-government movement in Syria. The rebels there have taken considerable swathes of land, but the government troops have stripped the rebels of their territory over the past year.

The rebels have evacuated the old quarters of Homs last month under a deal concluded with the Syrian government troops, leaving the old city in ruins due to the intensive clashes that has lasted for over three years.

According to the UN, well over 100,000 people have been killed and an estimated 9 million others driven from their homes since opposition protesters first sought to oust President Bashar al- Assad and his government in March 2011.