Suicide bomber kills 4 in Syria’s central town

PanARMENIAN.Net - A suicide bomber blew up his car in a central Syrian town on Saturday, killing three civilians and one security officer, AP cited Syria's state news agency as saying.

SANA said the attacker, who camouflaged the bomb with onions, detonated the explosives in the town of Muhrada.

The anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bomb targeted the local military security headquarters. Both reports said the dead included two women and a child.

The Observatory provided a photo of what it said was the bomb site. It showed the facades blown off buildings on opposite sides of a street.

Bombings of security buildings throughout Syria have grown more common as the uprising against President Bashar Assad has turned into a rebel insurgency. Many worry the attacks reflect the rise of Islamist extremists and possibly al-Qaida in the anti-Assad struggle.

Activists say more than 17,000 people, most civilians, have been killed since the uprising started with protests calling for political reform March 2011. The government says more than 4,000 security personnel have been killed. It does not provide numbers for civilians killed.