State TV: Mortar attack kills 5 in central Syria

Syrian state television said a mortar shell landed near a hospital in a government-controlled neighborhood of the central city of Homs, killing at least five people.             

State TV said the mortar round hit a car near the Al-Malek Hospital in the Akrama neighborhood. It says 13 people were also wounded in Thursday's attack.                

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at three, but said it isn't clear whether the explosion was caused by a car bomb or a mortar shell.        

Akrama is predominantly home to members of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect.              

Syria's opposition is dominated by the country's Sunni Muslim majority.          

Both the government and the rebels frequently shell civilian areas of the opposing side, although Assad's forces have far greater firepower at their disposal.

Also on Thursday, an official in the Palestinian Liberation Organization said that members of Palestinian forces linked to the PLO deployed in the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk, noting that food packages were distributed on the camp's residents.        

Ahmed Majdalani, Palestinian Minister of Labour, said the main road leading to the center of the camp was opened, adding that 167 people with special needs and others suffering diseases were evacuated.      

This comes as Syrian regime troops are preparing to advance towards the town of Yabroud near the Syrian-Lebanese border, in the Qalamoun mountains, according to al-Watan newspaper.        

The source added that the Syrian regime controlled a series of mountains in the town, adding that crossings which the rebels use to smuggle weapons and aids became under the control of the Syrian regime troops.     

Syria's conflict started as largely peaceful protests against Assad's rule in March 2011. It has developed into a civil war that has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones, pitting mostly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad's government, which is dominated by Alawites, a sect in Shiite Islam.         

More than 140,000 people have been killed, activists say, and millions have fled their homes to seek shelter in neighboring countries or in safer parts of their homeland. Many refugees have settled temporarily in areas sealed off by Assad's troops, with little if any food or medical aid within reach.