Car bomb kills 2 in Syrian government stronghold

The pro-government Latakia News Network Facebook page says the car bomb was detonated at a checkpoint on Saturday.

Hizballah's television station flashed that an explosive laden car caused the blast in the Tashreen district of the city that lies in the mountainous heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect. It cited casualties but gave no details.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the attack.

The government has sought to present the country as slowly returning to normalcy after six years of war. It held a premier trade fair in the capital, Damascus, last week for the first time since 2011.

But fighting is still underway in several parts of the country, and the attack in Latakia, which has been firmly under government control throughout the conflict, highlighted the lingering instability.