Blast in Homs city kills 8, wounds dozens

December 12, 2015 1:45 PM

Syrian state television described the attack as "two large terrorist explosions". News agency SANA published a photo of two men carrying a woman away from burning wreckage.

Syria"s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with the Iranian Khabar TV channel in this handout photograph released by Syria"s national news agency SANA on October 4, 2015.

Twin bomb blasts in a government-controlled neighbourhood of Syria's Homs city killed at least eight people and wounded dozens on Saturday, state media and a group monitoring the war said.

One of the bombs detonated close to a hospital in the mainly Alawite neighbourhood of al-Zahra in the east of Homs city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said, adding that the death toll was likely to rise.

Homs was a centre of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that started in 2011. The blasts come days after the implementation of a truce deal in Waer, another district of Homs situated on its northwestern outskirts.

Under that deal, agreed between the local government and insurgents under the auspices of the United Nations, a number of fighters and civilians left Waer, the last insurgent-held area of Homs and humanitarian aid was allowed in.

The agreement, which is still being implemented in stages, allowed the government to tighten its control of the western city.

Gbenga Bada

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