BEIRUT: A powerful blast killed four people Saturday in Qardaha, the hometown of the Assad family, an activist group said, adding that the origin of the explosion was unknown.
The explosion, the first to hit the center of the western town since the outbreak of Syria's civil war in 2011, hit an area near a hospital, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based group said it was unclear whether the explosion had been caused by a car bomb or by rocket fire.
The explosion "killed four people -- a nurse, a hospital employee and two soldiers," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
The outskirts of Qardaha have previously come under rebel rocket fire.