Syria car bomb kills 18 near school

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A wounded Syrian woman walks with her children after airstrikes on a rebel area of the war-torn northern city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Mourners attend a funeral for men killed during battles with members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Mahmud Al-Halabi / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters carry a man’s body at the Aleppo headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria after he was allegedly killed by the AlQaeda-linked group in January. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man helps an injured resident following an airstrike in Aleppo’s Maadi neighborhood. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man reacts after an airstrike by government forces on the city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters inside a building during clashes with pro-government forces in the Sheikh al-Said neighborhood of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs through a hole in a wall to avoid sniper fire by regime forces during clashes in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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Opposition fighters open fire from behind a car during fighting in the Salaheddin district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting in Damascus province between rebels and troops backed by pro-regime militias and fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian rebel aims his weapon during clashes with government forces in the streets near Aleppo international airport in northern Syria. (Stephen J. Boitano / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters duck as they run behind a barricade to avoid being fired at by Syrian government forces in the Old City of Aleppo. (JM Lopez / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad runs across the street after fighting with rebels in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the capital, Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad, jumps through the window of a destroyed building in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs in front of a sniper curtain in the industrial area of Syria’s eastern town of Deir Ezzor during clashes with government forces. (Abo Shuja / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Free Syrian Army fighters clean their weapons and check ammunition at their base on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)

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Syrian government forces patrol the Khaldiyeh district of Syria’s central city of Homs. The Syrian government announced on July 29 the capture of Khaldiyeh, a key rebel district in Homs. (Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian national flag is waved in Damascus to show support for President Bashar Assad. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)

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A rebel fighter takes aim at regime forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Louai Abo Al-Jod / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man stands near destroyed buildings after reported airstrikes by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. (Abu Amar Al-Taftanaz / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mustafa Abu Bekir, 23, second from left, meets relatives after crossing the Turkish Cilvegozu gate border. Abu Bekir said he was severely wounded by a bomb dropped from a Syrian army warplane while fighting with the Free Syrian Army in Idlib. (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

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A man carries a boy who was severely wounded during heavy fighting between Syrian rebels and troops last year in Idlib. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)

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Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives at a dinner event in Damascus on the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Virginie Nguyen Hoang / AFP/Getty Images)

By Nabih Bulos

Jan. 9, 2014 4:03 PM PT

BEIRUT — A car bomb detonated Thursday near a school in the central Syrian province of Hama, killing 18 people, according to the Syrian government and opposition sources.

The bomb exploded outside the town of Salmiya, killing mostly women and children, the reports said. The state-run news agency SANA said the attack left dozens wounded and caused “very significant” property damage.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based pro-opposition group, said the casualty toll was likely to rise.

Salmiya is known for its Ismaili majority. The minority sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, related to the Alawite sect of President Bashar Assad, who has fought a nearly three-year battle against the Sunni-dominated armed opposition. The sectarian civil war has left more than 100,000 people dead.

Separately, activists reported the opening of a new front in fighting between rebel factions in Homs province, a central region previously thought to have been devoid of rebels with the Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Fighters with the faction have abandoned most of the territory they had held for about six months in the north, near Aleppo, Idlib and Raqqah, after a six-day rout at the hands of other Islamist groups.

Omar Hariri, a media activist with the Shaam News Network, who was reached via Skype, said clashes between fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and those with the Free Syrian Army were occurring near Rustun, in the northern Homs countryside. Another activist, Abu Yusef, corroborated the report.

The fighting apparently involved the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s killing of several gunmen from Liwa Khaled ibn al Walid, a rival faction that operates in the area, as well as the kidnapping of its commander.

Al Hadath News, a pro-government news outlet, released a video purportedly showing a room full of people killed while in the custody of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, one of the many gruesome videos highlighting the savagery that has marked the conflict. The accuracy of the video could not be independently verified.

As the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria saw its grip become increasingly tenuous, it repeatedly threatened to retreat from the front lines in the north, a threat it seems to have carried out.

Although government forces initially failed to take advantage of the withdrawal of some of the opposition’s most experienced fighters, activists reported that troops were advancing on Homs province, as well as the Kuweyres military air base about 23 miles east of Aleppo. The base, which remains under government control, had been under siege by rebels.

According to the pro-government Facebook page Syrian Perspective, the siege was broken “after a long and tiresome battle” against the Syrian army. It said that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “has retreated toward Idlib as the [Syrian army] captured a village near the base; this offers a buffer for the army.”

Both sides have jockeyed to consolidate their gains, both militarily and image-wise. The government has sought to appear cooperative in the surrender of its chemical weapons arsenal in a deal brokered by the United States and Russia.

Many activists and opposition leaders view the purge of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the resurgence of the hitherto moribund Free Syrian Army as attractive to Westerners wary of inadvertently supporting Al Qaeda.

“Is this not a conspiracy ... to end the dream of the Muslims to establish their own state in Syria?!” wrote Abu Hafas al Masry, a commander with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, on his Facebook page. “We warn every dog ... that we have pledged allegiance to death.”

Bulos is a special correspondent.

Syria car bomb kills 18 near school

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