Damascus, September 5 (RHC)-- Twin bomb attacks have killed at least 26 people and injured 50 others in Syria’s southwestern city of Suwayda, police sources say.  

Syria’s official SANA agency quoted security sources as saying on Friday that a first car bomb targeted a convoy of vehicles on the road on the outskirts of Suwayda.  The second bomb was detonated near Suwayda’s state-run hospital, killing those carrying the victims of the first blast, according to the report.

Other reports said Sheikh Wahid al-Balous, a senior Druze cleric, was killed in the first car bomb.  Balous had repeatedly lashed out at militants for their cold-blooded killing of the civilians in Syria.

Unofficial reports put the number of explosions in Suwayda at three, saying at least two bombs went off near the southern gate of the National Hospital.  The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said the car bomb targeting the convoy of Balous killed three others, without elaborating whether they were also members of Sweida’s Druze community.

SANA said eight people were injured in the first attack.  It said some of those injured in the second blast were in critical condition.