Syria: 100 people killed in attacks in Homs, claimed by al-Nusra Front
Twin car bombs claimed by jihadists on a government-held district of Syria’s third city Homs killed at least 100 people, mostly civilians, a monitoring group said Wednesday, sharply raising an earlier toll.
Tuesday’s attack was the deadliest of its kind in Homs since the Syrian conflict erupted three years ago, and came as government forces make a new attempt to overrun the handful of remaining rebel enclaves in the city centre.
It also came a day after President Bashar Assad registered to stand in a controversial June 3 election which is expected to return him to office despite the raging violence.
Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, said it carried out the twin bombings against the city’s Abbasiyeh neighbourhood, which is mainly inhabited by members of Assad’s Alawite minority community.