Twin Car Bombs Kill 25 in Syria's Homs

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  • W460
  • W460

Two car bombs killed at least 25 people, including women and children, in a government-held neighborhood of Syria's central city of Homs Wednesday, state news agency SANA reported.

Another 100 people were wounded in Karam al-Luz, in attacks SANA blamed on "terrorists," the government's term for people fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

"Twenty-five people fell as martyrs, including women and children, and more than 107 others were wounded after the explosion of the two car bombs" a half-hour apart, SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombings killed 21 people in a mostly Alawite neighborhood, referring to the Shiite Muslim offshoot sect to which the Assad family belongs.

Videos posted online by activists showed destroyed shopfronts and people panicking and running in all directions as rescuers struggled to extinguish a fire.

Syria's uprising began as a series of peaceful protests against the Assad family's four-decade rule but escalated into a full-scale insurgency after the regime launched a devastating crackdown on dissent.

More than 150,000 people have been killed since the revolt began in March 2011 and nine million have been driven from their homes, including 2.6 million international refugees.

Homs was an epicenter of the revolt but is now almost entirely in regime hands, with small pockets of rebels holding out in besieged areas in and around the devastated Old City.

Earlier Wednesday, troops fighting in the Qalamun region seized the town of Rankus, tightening their grip on the strategic region along the Lebanese border.

"Units of the Syrian army have now accomplished their operation in the Rankus area and restored security and stability after eliminating a large number of terrorists," state media said.

The Britain-based Observatory had earlier confirmed that "the army entered the area and is engaged in fierce fighting and heavy shelling."

The group, with a network of sources inside Syria, said 28 rebels had been killed in Qalamun area as well as in Eastern Ghouta, elsewhere in Damascus province, in fighting between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Troops backed by pro-regime militiamen and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah have captured most of Qalamun, through which a key highway runs between Damascus and Homs.

Last month, the regime dealt a major blow to the opposition by seizing its last key bastion in the region, the town of Yabrud.

The rebels still control a few smaller villages in Qalamun, but have seen their supply lines across the border with Lebanon largely severed.

Comments 7
Missing --karim-- 09 April 2014, 20:08

May the filthy FSA-Al Qaeda jihadist terrorists rot in hell.

Missing coolmec 09 April 2014, 20:34

Revolution?? Pfffffffffffffff
Syria is being destroyed slowly and surely
Poor Syria!! Poor Syrians!!!

Missing coolmec 09 April 2014, 21:38

terrorist
Usually in a conflict of such magnitude it is incorrect to lay the blame on one single entity. I am sure you know that there certainly is more to it than that

Thumb cedre 09 April 2014, 22:08

please post evidence that it was done by pro 'revolution' or shut that dirty smelly mouth of yours...

Thumb cedre 10 April 2014, 00:39

please all report josefani/fd/mystic new fake account : ibinharathreik with a dot...

Default-user-icon Hanoun (Guest) 09 April 2014, 23:46

the weapon of the cowards exploding cars and killing civilians , this shows how bankrupt are these takfiries and their masters

Thumb beiruti 10 April 2014, 17:20

The Syrian War is part of a much larger game being played regionally and internationally. Hezbollah's participation, though for local objectives, has made it and Lebanon part of the larger game being played, a game that Hezbollah is not prepared to win nor able to win. All Hezbollah can do is to embroil Lebanon into the broader game which Lebanon cannot win.
Syria is radioactive and anyone who touches it becomes radioactive and transfers the poison to all that they touch.