ISLAMIC State (Isis) claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing in the central Syrian city of Hama yesterday that killed two people and injured 12.

The first bomber detonated his explosive belt in the city’s al-Assi Square and another struck 15 minutes later.

Hama is under threat from an ongoing offensive by the al-Qaida offshoot Jund al-Aqsa and its US-armed allies of Free Syrian Army factions.

On Friday a young female student and swimming champion Mireille Hindoyan and her 12-year-old brother were killed when Western-backed insurgents shelled west Aleppo’s Armenian Villi district.

Meanwhile yesterday the Russian ceasefire monitoring mission in Latakia said eight more villages had declared locally negotiated truces with the government in the cities of Latakia, Homs and Quneitra.

Syrian troops and Palestinian militia also advanced in north Aleppo yesterday, threatening to outflank rebel group Fateh Halab.