Car bomb kills 7 in Syria regime bastion

Seven people are killed and 40 wounded in a rare car bombing in the Syrian city of Latakia, the coastal bastion of President Bashar Assad, state television says.

In a breaking news alert, the channel says “seven people died and more than 40 were wounded when a terrorist car bomb detonated in Hamam square in Latakia.”

Latakia, the heartland of the minority Alawite sect to which the Assad clan belongs, has been largely spared the violence that has wracked Syria since an uprising against its rule erupted in March 2011.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirms the death toll and says it was “the biggest car bomb attack in Latakia since the war began.”

“This is rare for Latakia city, which is usually hit by rockets,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman tells AFP.

Rebels entrenched in the hilly terrain around Latakia regularly fire rockets and other missiles into the city.

Abdel Rahman says the car bomb detonated on the northern edges of the city and “wounded dozens, including four or five in critical condition.”

Many Syrians displaced by violence in neighboring regions have taken refuge in Latakia province and some businesses have moved to the relative safety of the area.

More than 240,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has spiraled from an anti-government movement to a multi-front civil war.

— AFP