Rebel Car Bomb Kills 16 in Syrian Ismaili Village

Bomb Detonated Near School, Causing Massive Damage

The Syrian village of Kaffat is reeling today after a rebel car bomb was detonated in front of the local school, badly damaging the residential neighborhood and killing 16 people, mostly civilians.

Kaffat, in the Hama Province, is an Ismaili village, and like other religious minorities the followers of Ismailism are finding themselves targeted by Islamist rebel factions.

So far no group has claimed credit for the strike on Kaffat, but car bombs have been a signature tactic of al-Qaeda factions in the nation, and they have also been the most eager to target seemingly random religious minorities.

Hama is one of several provinces that finds itself along the frontier between Assad-government held Damascus and the rebel-dominated north, and civilians have been more commonly targeted in such areas, where factions believe they the locals may resist their takeover.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.