Syria: Car bomb hits Assad stronghold of Latakia

Explosion killed one person and injured five more in coastal city's Al Hamam Square

Syrians gather at a site of car bomb in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on August 2, 2018.  
Idlib is the last of four "de-escalation" zones agreed by world powers in 2017 where the rebels still have a major presence. Strategically important Idlib province shares a border with rebel-backer Turkey and is adjacent to Latakia, a regime stronghold on the Mediterranean. / AFP PHOTO / OMAR HAJ KADOUR
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One person died and five were wounded when a car bomb exploded in the coastal Syrian city of Latakia on Tuesday.

The blast hit Latakia’s Al Hamam Square and was blamed on a suicide bomber, Syrian state news agency Sana reported.

It said that the security forces dismantled a second device before it could be detonated.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack killed one person and wounded five others.

Another car bomb hit Damascus on Sunday but there were no casualties.

Such blasts are rare in Latakia which has generally been spared the violence that gripped other parts of the war-torn country.

It is the site of Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base, from which Moscow launches bombing raids in support of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime.

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