THREE people were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber struck a bus station in the central Syrian city of Hama.

City governor Mohammad al-Hazzouri said two women and a man died and 11 people were injured in the attack.

Two more bombs were found in the building and diffused by engineers. Explosions are rare in Hama, which is controlled by the government.

The attack came as the army and Palestinian volunteer militia made advances against Isis in the desert east of Homs province.

That followed Wednesday’s long-range cruise missile attacks on Isis arms dumps by strategic bombers flying from Russia’s Engels air force base.

Government troops also made progress in the Jobar district of Damascus, where Failaq al-Rahman insurgents made more allegations of chemical weapons attacks.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “Terrorist groups are planning staged provocations with the use of chemical weapons” to justify more US air strikes on Syrian forces.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned Turkey’s latest aggression in the north of Aleppo province in a formal protest to the United Nations.

Turkey recently moved more forces into the border area it occupies, alongside a gaggle of Ankara-backed extremist groups, and shelled the neighbouring Afrin area controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia.

The ministry said the incursion was part of Turkey’s “subversive” role in Syria and proved Ankara was the “main partner” of terrorism.

On Wednesday, Syria’s UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari blamed Turkey for the failure of this week’s talks in the Kazakh capital Astana to make progress on ceasefire zones in areas held by Western-backed insurgents.