Car bomb in Syria kills 16
Print Edition
A powerful car bomb exploded near a school in a central province yesterday, killing at least 16 people and causing massive damage to a residential area.
The explosion targeted the al-Kaffat village in Hama province, an area populated mostly by members of the country’s minority Ismaili sect, a branch of Shiite Islam.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but radical Sunni extremists among the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad’s government frequently have targeted the country’s religious minorities in the course of the civil war, now in its third year.
The conflict largely pits the mostly Sunni opposition against Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
State television said the car bomb explosion in al-Kaffat village killed 16 people and caused extensive damage to cars and residences in the area. The Hama police command said there were women and children among the victims.
The explosion occurred amid continuing infighting in northern Syria between rebel factions and an al-Qaida-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Iraqi-based group has alienated other factions by using brutal tactics to implement its strict interpretation of Islamic law including the kidnapping and killing of opponents.
A consortium of rebel groups began attacking the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant last Friday, and weeklong clashes have killed hundreds of people in what has become a war within the war in Syria.
Also yesterday, Germany said it will help destroy Syria’s stockpile of chemicals as part of international efforts to rid the country of the raw materials for poison gas and nerve agents.
German experts at a site near Hamburg will get rid of the byproducts created when the chemicals are destroyed — which is currently slated to be done aboard a ship at sea.
The first batch of toxic chemicals was loaded onto a Danish ship and shipped on Tuesday toward international waters.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
