At least 8 die in twin bomb blasts in Syria's Homs

PanARMENIAN.Net - Twin bomb blasts in a government-controlled neighborhood of Syria's Homs city killed at least eight people and wounded dozens on Saturday, December 12, state media and a group monitoring the war said, according to Reuters.

One of the bombs detonated close to a hospital in the mainly Alawite neighborhood of al-Zahra in the east of Homs city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said, adding that the death toll was likely to rise.

Syrian state television described the attack as "two large terrorist explosions". News agency SANA published a photo of two men carrying a woman away from burning wreckage.

Homs was a center of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that started in 2011. The blasts come days after the implementation of a truce deal in Waer, another district of Homs situated on its northwestern outskirts.

Under that deal, agreed between the local government and insurgents under the auspices of the United Nations, a number of fighters and civilians left Waer, the last insurgent-held area of Homs and humanitarian aid was allowed in.

The agreement, which is still being implemented in stages, allowed the government to tighten its control of the western city.