Syria blasts at school kill 22, including 10 children

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens check the damaged school entrance in Akrama neighborhood in Homs province, Syria, on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014. Twin bombings near a school in central Syria killed over a dozen of people on Wednesday, as gruesome images appeared on social media networks purported to show Kurdish fighters slain at the hands of Islamic State militants during battles near Syria's border with Turkey.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens check the damaged school entrance in Akrama neighborhood in Homs province, Syria, on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014. Twin bombings near a school in central Syria killed over a dozen of people on Wednesday, as gruesome images appeared on social media networks purported to show Kurdish fighters slain at the hands of Islamic State militants during battles near Syria's border with Turkey.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Twin car bombings near a school in Syria killed 22 people on Wednesday, including at least 10 children, with the second exploding as parents frantically searched for their sons and daughters in a street littered with school bags and body parts.

Syria's children are frequently among the victims of attacks in the country's civil war, but on Wednesday they appear to have been the target. The first vehicle exploded as children were leaving school, and the second struck as adults carried away bodies, sending a new wave of panic through the crowd.

The blasts occurred outside the Ekremah al-Makhzoumi elementary school in a government-controlled area of Homs dominated by minority Alawites, the Shiite offshoot sect to which President Bashar Assad's family belongs. It was one of the deadliest strikes to hit the area in months.

Read Thursday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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