Bomb explosion kills four in central Syria’s Homs city: state TV reports

A bomb blast killed four people and wounded others near a Red Crescent centre in government-held Homs city in central Syria on Thursday, state television said.

A bomb blast killed four people and wounded others near a Red Crescent centre in government-held Homs city in central Syria on Thursday, state television said.

Staff of the Syrian Red Crescent pull a stretcher with a wounded person in the embattled city of Aleppo on December 15, 2016. A bomb explosion reportedly occurred near a Red Crescent centre in Homs city, central Syria. (AFP)

“A bomb exploded near a Red Cross centre in the Zahraa neighbourhood,” a breaking news alert said.

“Four civilians were killed and others wounded, some of them seriously,” it added.

The Zahraa neighbourhood is majority Alawite, the religious sect to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs, and has been regularly targeted in blasts during Syria’s conflict.

In September, four people were killed in an explosion at the entrance to the neighbourhood that was claimed by the Islamic State group.

The jihadist group also claimed a double bomb attack in the neighbourhood in February that killed 57 people.

Syria’s government controls all but one neighbourhood in Homs city, as well as much of the surrounding province.

More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the country’s conflict began with anti-government demonstrations in March 2011.