29 rebels dead in Syria premature car bomb blast
Rebel fighters cheer in the town of Babolin in Idlib countryside after claiming to have taken control of the town April 4, 2014. ReutersAt least 29 people were killed, most or all of them believed to be rebels, in the besieged Old City of Homs when a car bomb exploded, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
A British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the death toll from the blast could increase, with "dozens of missing persons in the area."
There was no immediate explanation for the explosion.
Earlier, in a separate incident, the state news agency SANA said a mortar fired by rebel fighters struck the Damascus Opera House, killing two.
The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad is no longer in danger of falling, the leader of Lebanon\’s militant Hezbollah group said in an interview with a Lebanese newspaper.
In an interview with daily newspaper As-Safir, Hassan Nasrallah also said the threat of bombings in Lebanon "has dropped considerably" because of the "measures adopted along the Lebanese-Syrian border."
Hezbollah militants have been fighting alongside Syrian government troops against the rebels trying to oust Assad from power. The Shiite group\’s fighters were instrumental in helping Assad\’s forces dislodge opposition fighters from their strongholds along the countries\’ border.
However, Hezbollah\’s public role in the 3-year-old conflict has inflamed sectarian tensions in Lebanon. The country\’s Sunni Muslims support the Syrian rebels. In the past weeks, the Sunni militants have carried out several deadly attacks on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon, claiming they were in revenge for Hezbollah\’s help to the Syrian government.
As for Assad\’s government in Damascus, Nasrallah said: "The danger of the Syrian regime\’s fall has ended."
At least one person has been reported killed and dozens hurt in a riot at Jordan\’s Zaatari camp, home to some 106,000 refugees from Syria\’s war.
Jordanian forces used tear gas against stone-throwing refugees who had set fire to tents and vehicles.
Both sides blame each other for provoking the violence. The dead person was a Syrian refugee, officials say.
The sprawling camp has seen several protests since opening two years ago, mainly over poor living conditions.
Zaatari is located in the Jordanian desert, about 12km (7.5 miles) from the Syrian border.
It is the world\’s second-largest refugee camp – behind Dadaab in eastern Kenya – and has become the fourth largest city in Jordan.
Earlier this week, the UN confirmed that the number of Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon had surpassed one million, making it the highest per capita concentration of refugees worldwide.
This is followed by Jordan, which houses almost 600,000 refugees. Other main host countries include Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.
More than 140,000 people have been killed and another 2.5 million have fled the country since Syria\’s civil war began in March 2011.
The conflict started with mass street protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and turned into an insurgency after a violent crackdown on demonstrators.
Source: Agencies
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