Explosions strike Damascus, Homs

Explosions strike Damascus, Homs

May 24, 2017
The aftermath of a car bomb explosion near Al-Zahraa neighborhood in the government-controlled central city of Homs. – AFP
The aftermath of a car bomb explosion near Al-Zahraa neighborhood in the government-controlled central city of Homs. – AFP

BEIRUT – A car bomb exploded in Homs on Tuesday morning, Syrian state television said, two days after the city passed back under full government control for the first time since 2011.

Authorities destroyed another vehicle rigged with explosives near a shrine south of Damascus, the broadcaster and other state media outlets reported.

Homs governor Talal Al-Barazi told Syrian state news the blast killed three people in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood of the city, which lies around 160 km (100 miles) north of the capital.

On Sunday, hundreds of departing Syrian rebels and their families completed the evacuation of Homs’s last opposition-held district, Al-Waer, which has been under full siege by government and allied forces for more than a year.

The second explosion occurred near a shrine, close to a checkpoint on the Damascus airport road, where the car was intercepted and blown up by Syrian authorities.

Syria’s civil war, now in its seventh year, has left about 400,000 people dead and millions displaced from their homes. – Agencies


May 24, 2017
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