Suicide car bomb kills at least nine in Syria's Golan Heights

A suicide car bomb killed at least nine people and injured 23 others in Syria's Golan Heights on Friday, regime media said. 

The car bomb hit the outskirts of the village of Hader, which lies near the disengagement line that divides the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan from the area occupied by Israel, the regime's SANA news agency stated. 

"A suicide bomber from Al Nusra Front detonated a car bomb in the midst of the homes of citizens on the outskirts of Hader, killing nine people and injuring at least 23," the agency said.

SANA further said the toll was expected to rise because a number of those wounded in the bombing were in serious condition and the ongoing assault on the town made it difficult to remove the injured to safety.

Hader is a majority-Druze village and has been attacked in the past. 

The village lies in southwestern Syria's Quneitra province, around 70 percent of which is held by rebel groups, with the regime controlling the other 30 percent, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

The Nusra Front is the old name for a rebel group that was formerly Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria known as the Jabhat Fateh al Sham. The group rebranded itself as Hayat Tahrir al Sham in January after it severed ties with Al Qaeda last year.  

Opposed to the Syrian regime, Hayat Tahrir al Sham is the dominant faction in the northwestern rebel-held province of Idlib.