Gunmen blast cargo train in northern Syria

Damascus, April 22 (Xinhua-ANI): Armed groups targeted a cargo train with explosives on Sunday at the outskirts of the northern Idlib province, causing big damages to the train and injuring the train's six-member crew, state-run SANA news agency reports.

The train was targeted by a roadside bomb planted by " terrorists," which has damaged 75 meters of the railway and caused one carriage to overturn and another one was derailed, SANA quoted George Muqaebari, head of the General Institution for Railways, as saying.

Muqaebari said the losses are up to tens of millions of Syrian pounds, noting that the train was used to carry fuel to operate an energy station in the northern province of Aleppo.

He stressed that Syria's losses in the sector of railways have been estimated at 1.7 billion Syrian pounds (27.8 million U.S. dollars) over the past 13 months.

The Syrian government blames the yearlong crisis on armed groups working out a foreign conspiracy.

The UN estimated that more than 9,000 people have so far been killed in the Syrian conflict, including at least 500 children, while Syria says 6,044 have died, including 2,566 soldiers and police. (Xinhua-ANI)