Blast in Syria's Idlib kills 12 civilians

A bomb-laden car exploded in front of a hospital in the Idlib city center and another 25 people were injured, said White Helmets Civil Defense agency on Saturday.

Civil defence crews and locals conduct search and rescue works after a bomb laden car explodes in front of the district hospital near the court house in Idlib, Syria on May 12, 2018.
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Civil defence crews and locals conduct search and rescue works after a bomb laden car explodes in front of the district hospital near the court house in Idlib, Syria on May 12, 2018.

At least 12 civilians were killed and another 25 injured in Syria’s Idlib province from a bomb attack on Saturday, according to the White Helmets Civil Defense.

Mustafa Haj Youssef, director of the White Helmets in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency that a bomb-laden car exploded in front of a hospital in the city centre.

The blast also damaged nearby houses and vehicles, and the injured were transferred to hospitals in the region, Youssef added.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which relies on a network of sources inside the war-torn country, put the death toll at nine, adding that the blast left 26 more people wounded.

Located in northern Syria near the Turkish border, Idlib has been declared a "de-escalation zone" last May, in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.

Syria has just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Bashar al Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.

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