REPORT: Car bomb kills 7 people in central Syrian city

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car Saturday in Syria's central city of Homs, tearing through an area largely populated by the regime's Alawite sect and killing seven people, a state-owned TV station reported. Meanwhile, government troops took control of a key village as the regime presses its offensive to clear a path between Damascus and the Mediterranean coast.                 

With the help of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, President Bashar Assad's regime has been chasing rebels from long-held strategic areas linking the capital, Damascus, with the government stronghold areas along Mediterranean coast. It gained momentum this week after seizing the strategic city of Qusayr and the army has begun advancing north toward the cities of Homs and Aleppo.  
              
In this regard, the state-owned Al-Ikhbariya TV said the attacker detonated the explosives-laden car in a busy area near a roundabout in the Homs neighborhood of Adawiya, which largely houses Alawites, members of a minority sect that is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The report said the seven killed included three women and a teenager, and said 10 other people were wounded as the blast heavily damaged nearby houses and vehicles.           

Earlier, Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah captured the village of al-Bweida al-Sharqiya, the final rebel stronghold in the area surrounding the town of Qusayr, that was seized earlier this week.                    
Security sources and activists said dozens of rebels who had escaped from Qusayr were captured in the assault, which secured government forces full control over land close to the Lebanese border that is seen as an important route for arms and supplies.
           
The Syrian conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011, but later degenerated into a bloody civil war that has killed more than 80,000 people, according to United Nations officials. It also has spilled over the borders with Lebanon, Israel, Turkey and Iraq, threatening to ignite a broader regional conflict.

 

AP/REUTERS

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