At least 25 people were killed in twin car bomb blasts that hit the Syrian city of Homs on Sunday, a monitoring group said, with state media confirming the deadly attacks. At least 100 others were wounded by the explosions in the city centre's Zahra district, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. State television put the death toll at 14 people with 29 wounded. Pro-Damascus channel al-Ikhbariya showed footage of damaged shop fronts, debris littering the streets, wounded people and charred or burning cars. A bomb attack claimed by Islamic State last month in Homs in the west of the country killed at least 24 people, the city's governor said at the time, as government forces took back some Islamic State-held villages in Aleppo province in the north. Sunday's attacks also came a day after government advances against Islamic State. There was no immediate claim from the group, however. Another bomb attack in December which killed 32 people took place following a ceasefire deal that paved the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of the city, which was a centre of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/188139.aspx
