DeaGLe^ Posted February 25, 2017 Posted February 25, 2017 At least 32 people killed - including army's top spy - after brazen attacks on security offices in third-largest city. A series of suicide attacks on military installations in Syria's government-held city of Homs have killed at least 32 people, including the army's intelligence chief - a close confidante of President Bashar al-Assad. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that loud explosions and gunfire were heard following the assault in the western city. "There were at least six attackers and several of them blew themselves up near the headquarters of state security and military intelligence," Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency. Bombers engaged in prolonged gun battles with intelligence officers before detonating their explosive vests. The governor of Homs province, Talal Barzani, said there were three blasts in total killing 32 people and wounding more than 20 others. The Syrian Observatory said 42 people had been killed. The attacks hit the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods and security forces locked down the city centre. Syrian state television said the army's intelligence chief General Hassan Daabul died and it paid tribute to the "martyrs" in Saturday's bombings. A witness is quoted as saying a suicide bomber actually made it into Daabul's office and detonated himself. Brigadier Ibrahim Darwish, head of the State Security Branch, was also critically wounded, state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV reported.
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