Car bomb kills eight passengers in Syria's Homs city

BEIRUT: An explosives-laden bus blew up Tuesday in a predominantly pro-government neighbourhood of the central Syrian city of Homs that has been repeatedly targeted, killing eight people, state television said.

The blast rocked a street in the Akrameh neighbourhood mostly inhabited by members of the Alawite minority to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.

“The toll in the terrorist explosion on Al-Ahram Street has rising to eight dead and 15 injured,” state television said in a breaking news alert.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said a minibus had exploded on the edge of the Akrameh district.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which left the mangled metal carcasses of burnt-out vehicles strewn across the road.

Windows in buildings on either side of the site of the attack were blown in, and debris from the blast was scattered in the street.

Akrameh has been hit by several such attacks in the past, the deadliest of which killed nearly 50 schoolchildren in October 2014.

That attack prompted rare demonstrations and the firing of several local security officials.

Security measures were stepped up after the 2014 attack, including with additional checkpoints and roadblocks.

Homs has been fully controlled by Syria’s government since May, when the last rebel fighters in the city were evacuated after a deal with the government overseen by Russia.