Car bombs in Syria kill nearly 50

The powerful double blasts on Sunday sent up a billow of black smoke and scattered debris i Hom's Zahraa neighbourhood, where many of the residents are members of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect. Initial reports from Syrian state television put the number of civilian deaths at 25, but that number quickly rose to at least 46 killed, according to a monitoring group. The death toll is likely to increase due to the large number of injuries.

Homs was an early center of the armed rebellion against Assad, but most of the destroyed city has since come under the control of regime troops through a combination of fighting and the negotiated withdrawal of rebels.

The city is a frequent target of attacks by the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) and al Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra front. Sunday's attack came as government and allied forces advance on IS territory. No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack.

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