An explosives-laden bus blew up Tuesday in a predominantly pro-government neighbourhood of the central Syrian city of Homs that has been repeatedly targeted, killing eight people, a monitor said.

The blast rocked a street in the Akrama neighbourhood mostly inhabited by members of the Alawite minority to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"At least eight people died when a mini-bus exploded on the edge of the Akrama neighbourhood," the head of the Britain-based monitor, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

The attack, for which there was no immediate claim, was confirmed by Syrian state media and officials.

Akrama has been hit by several such attacks in the past, the deadliest of which killed dozens of schoolchildren in October 2014.

source: Alarabiya