[Iran Press TV] Saboteurs have attacked a passenger train carrying up to 480 passengers, many of them women and kiddies, in the central Syrian city of Homs.The attack that happened on Saturday led to the immediate death of the driver and the injury of several passengers, Syria's official news agency, SANA, reported.
As a result of the attack, the train caught on fire and a number of its carriages overturned.
An official at the Interior Ministry explained the attack as an attempt to commit a massacre.
"The Ministry urges all citizens to cooperate with security and police apparatus to give any information available about the saboteurs and criminals who exploit and hide behind demonstrations to carry out terrorist acts that target civilians as well as damaging private and public properties," said the official on condition of anonymity.
Syria, in particular the city of Homs, has been experiencing unrest in past months, with demonstrations held both against and in support of the Bashir al-Assad government.
Hundreds have been reported killed when some protest rallies turned into armed festivities between the alleged protesters and state security forces as well as organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police force and border guards in north of the country. Since the beginning of the unrests in Syria in mid-March, hundreds of people, including security forces, have been killed.
The opposition accuses security forces of being behind the killings. But the Syrian government blames armed gangs for the violence, saying that the unrest is being orchestrated from outside the country.
Syrian President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
has vowed to bring the people responsible for the killings to justice.