Six people have been killed in the Syrian Shi'ite village of Sabtiyeh near the city of Homs when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden lorry outside a school.

Three children and a woman are known to be among the dead and a further 40 people are known to have been wounded in the atrocity.

No group claimed responsibility for the blast but such bombings are the hallmark of al-Qaida-linked groups that have spearheaded armed efforts to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Sabtiyeh has seen no fighting in the war and may have been targeted solely because of its religious affiliation, with its inhabitants traditionally having good relations with nearby Sunni communities.

Overseas jihadi forces have resorted increasingly to terrorist tactics such as car bombs against civilians in light of military setbacks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported yesterday that Kurdish fighters, possibly in alliance with Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party, have retaken nearly 20 villages from al-Qaida affiliate the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the Syria-Turkey border area.

Syria's Kurds, who have had poor relations with Mr Assad's regime previously, find themselves in objective alliance with the president after he accepted their autonomy in Kurdish areas and they came under attack from rebel forces.

nProminent anti-Assad military officer Colonel Abdul-Jabbar al-Akidi announced on Sunday that he was stepping down from leadership of Aleppo province's rebel military council.