BEIRUT (Reuters) - A blast on a bus carrying passengers in the government-controlled Syrian city of Homs injured six people on Tuesday, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

“Six civilians were injured by a bomb explosion inside a bus in ... the al-Zahra neighborhood,” SANA said, quoting the head of Homs police force.

A number of bombings struck cities under Syrian government control last year, including the capital Damascus, and a similar bus explosion hit Homs in mid-march, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

Islamic State and the rebel Tahrir al-Sham alliance — led by fighters formerly linked to al-Qaeda — have claimed some of the deadly attacks.

Syrian state television station al-Ikhbariya showed pictures of a white minibus it said had been damaged by the bomb.