Suicide attacks on bases in Syria's Homs kill 42
The bombings in Homs came a day after the Islamic State killed 77 people in a separate wave of attacks in northern Syria
Suicide attacks on two security service bases in the heart of Syria’s government-held third city of Homs killed 42 people on Saturday, overshadowing peace talks in Geneva, state television and a monitor said.
“There were at least six attackers and several of them blew themselves up near the headquarters of state security and military intelligence,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
State television reported that the province’s army intelligence chief, General Hassan Daabul, a close confidant of President Bashar al-Assad, was among the dead when the six suicide bombers struck in the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods.
Security forces locked down the city centre.
Homs has been under the full control of the government since May 2014 when rebels withdrew from the centre under a UN-brokered truce deal.
But it has seen repeated bombings since then. Twin attacks killed 64 people early last year.