Two major explosions rip through Syrian city of Homs

At least 32 people have been killed and 90 others wounded in two explosions in the Syrian city of Homs, UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The blasts, one from a car bomb and another from a suicide bomber, hit the Zahra district in the middle of the city on Monday, the group said.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported two car bomb blasts, but gave a lower toll of 19 dead and more than 100 wounded.

It was the second major attack in the city since a ceasefire deal took effect earlier this month, paving the way for the government to take over the last rebel-controlled area of Homs.

Twin blasts on December 12, also in Zahra, killed at least 16 people. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed reponsibility for that attack, saying it had detonated a suicide car bomb.

The blasts came as hundreds of fighters and their families were being evacuated from three areas in Syria to Lebanon and Turkey. 

Under the Homs ceasefire deal, at least 700 insurgent fighters and members of their families left the last rebel-controlled area of the city, al Waer district, on Monday.

The United Nations oversaw implementation of the deal.