2 blasts in city of Homs kill 14, wound 29

At least 14 people were killed and tens of others wounded on Sunday in twin bombings by booby-trapped cars in Syria’s central city of Homs, state news agency SANA said.

Firefighters ran through debris strewn by the explosions as security forces and civilians tried to prise open the wreckage of one vehicle to retrieve a person inside.

Nearby, a charred body was carried away on a stretcher by emergency services workers past shops with their fronts ripped off and mangled cars and minibuses.

Homs, once called “the capital of the revolution”, was retaken by Syrian regime forces in mid-2014 after a deal was negotiated which allowed the opposition fighters under siege in that city for almost two years to withdraw provided their allies in the Aleppo region stopped besieging two Shiite villages, Nubul and Zahra.

That attack killed 48 children and four adults. The rebels controlled large parts of Homs after the uprising against Assad’s government began in March 2011.

Earlier this month, world powers involved in Syria agreed to seek a nationwide “cessation of hostilities” but the suggested start date has come and gone.

Meanwhile US Secretary of State John Kerry said a “provisional agreement” has been reached with Russian Federation on a partial truce in the conflict, the BBC reported.

The latest violence comes as President Assad says he hopes to be remembered as the man who “saved” Syria.

It fears the Kurdish advances are meant to link up areas in north and northeast Syria to create a contiguous semi-autonomous Kurdish zone along the Syrian-Turkish border.