Seven killed in shooting attack on bus in Syria's Homs province

At least seven people were killed Wednesday "by gunfire" against a bus in Syria's central Homs province, the official SANA news agency reported. 

The attack also wounded four others, according to state media. A security source who requested anonymity had initially given AFP a preliminary toll of five dead. The perpetrators have not yet been identified, SANA said.

Among the bus passengers were "engineers and workers from a private company," along with an employee of the Syrian Electricity Company who was among the victims, the security source said. 

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group with an extensive network of sources inside Syria, "all the victims are Alawites."

Despite assurances from the Islamist authorities who took power at the end of 2024 that all communities would be protected, Alawites and other Syrian minorities remain fearful. Massacres of Alawites on Syria's coast in 2025 killed hundreds, and Syrian courts issued their first verdicts in the trial over those killings on September 17.

A pattern of insecurity across Syria

Syria's new authorities continue to face major security challenges, with Damascus and its outskirts repeatedly targeted by attacks. 

Shortly before the bus shooting, state media reported a gas pipeline explosion Wednesday evening near one of Syria's main power plants close to Damascus, two days after a separate pipeline was sabotaged in the country's east. Authorities are investigating the cause of the incident, which caused no casualties, according to the state oil company cited by SANA.

On August 22, a bomb attack on a bus carrying members of Syria's internal security forces near Damascus left several wounded. 

In early August, a bus explosion wounded 14 people in Jaramana, a town near Damascus home to Christian and Druze communities. In July, one person was killed and 36 wounded in two explosions near a hotel where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during a visit; authorities later announced the arrest of suspects they said belonged to the Islamic State group.