5 Killed in Damascus Blast

A Syrian rights group says a bomb has exploded in Damascus, killing five people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday the blast targeted the neighborhood of Qaboun, which has been the center of several protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

The blast came a day after activists said government forces stormed the village of Qastoun. An activist living in the central city of Hama told Reuters news agency that dozens of mortars had hit the village and caused casualties.

In Lebanon, hundreds of mourners fired into the air Monday at a raucous funeral for anti-Syrian cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Abdul-Wahid. His killing set off street battles in Beirut that left at least two people dead and more than a dozen wounded.