Syrian school children among six killed in Homs

At least six people have been killed on Sunday in the central Syrian province of Homs, five of them schoolchildren, the official SANA news agency reported.

“Terrorists blew up a car bomb near the primary school in the town of Omm al-Amd in the countryside outside Homs, killing five schoolchildren and two workers,” SANA said.

Omm al-Amd is home to a Shiite community close to the Alawite sect of President Bashar al-Assad, the watchdog noted.

The governor's office official said at least 10 people died in the blast, including five students. It wasn't possible to immediately reconcile the conflicting death tolls. The Observatory obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground.

Syria's rebels are mainly Sunni, with hard-line Muslim brigades emerging as the most powerful fighting groups. Shiites and other Syrian minority groups have either stayed neutral or sided with Assad, fearing for their future should the uprising prevail.