In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian security forces, center, gather at site where a car bomb has exploded near a school, at al-Kaffat village in the central Hama province, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2013. Syrian state media and an opposition watchdog say a car bomb has exploded near a school in a central province, killing several people and wounding dozens. (AP Photo/SANA)
January 09, 2014 - 4:11 AM
DAMASCUS, Syria - Syrian state media and an opposition watchdog say a car bomb has exploded near a school in a central province, killing at least 16 people and wounding dozens.
Syrian TV says Thursday's explosion in the al-Kaffat village in the central Hama province also caused extensive damage. The Hama police command says there were women and children among the victims.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which keeps track of the fighting in Syria through a network of activists on the ground, says 18 people were killed, most of them civilians.
Al-Kaffat's residents are mostly from the country's minority Ismaili sect, a branch of Shiite Islam.
Syria's conflict has pitted the mostly Sunni opposition against President Bashar Assad's Alawites, members of a Shiite offshoot sect.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014