Car bomb in Syria\\\'s Hama province kills 34

A car bomb in Syria's western Hama province killed 34 and wounded more than 50, Syria's state news agency said on Friday, blaming the attack on rebels fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. It was not immediately clear if the attack was in any way related to the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is very active in Syria and has seized vast tracts of territory across the border in Iraq. Nusra Front, which is linked to al Qaeda and has been fighting rival group ISIL, is thought to have been behind several bomb attacks in Hama in recent months. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group, said 38 were killed and more than 40 wounded in the blast which took place in Hurra, an Alawite village close to the city of Hama. Assad is from Syria's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. It said a suicide bomber in a truck had detonated himself, killing mainly civilians, including women and children, according to Reuters.