Damascus - XINHUA
At least four people were killed and nine others wounded on Saturday when a car bomb exploded near an aid convoy in the Syria's central province of Hama, the state news agency SANA reported. The blast targeted four truckloads of humanitarian aid of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) near a government-subsidized bakery in the town of Salamiyeh in Hama, SANA said. The wounded people have been taken to nearby hospitals. The explosion also damaged shops, cars and other properties, according to the report. SANA did not spell details about the fate of other SARC members who were accompanying the aid convoy. SARC has lost about 34 of its humanitarian workers during the country's long-running conflict. The blast is the latest violence to hit central Syria and coincided with another explosion that rocked the central province of Homs on Saturday. Further details about the Homs explosion are still forthcoming. The three-year Syrian crisis started in mid-March 2011 when anti-government protesters took to the street calling for reforms, but rapidly evolved into a civil war which witnessed the formation of anti-government militias joined by radical jihadist movements.