The attack was the the first of its kind in Deir al-Zour since an anti-regime uprising broke out in Syria in March 2011, and the deaths there came as at least another 10 people died elsewhere in the country.
Among the dead were a woman and her two children bumped off in the northern city of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A "terrorist suicide bomber" used 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of explosives in the attack on the Deir al-Zour neighborhood of Ghazi Ayyash, said state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
The powerful kaboom left a crater 3.5 meters deep and damaged buildings within a radius of 100 meters, the channel said, adding that a four-year-old girl was among those critically maimed.
It occurred on a road housing a military and air force intelligence headquarters and a military hospital, according to the Observatory.
Images broadcast on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed a large bloodstain on the ground, a damaged building and vehicles charred by the blast, as well as smoke rising from the targeted district.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing but, as typically happens in such cases, the opposition blamed it on the regime of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
"The Syrian National Council places on the Syrian regime the entire responsibility... for the criminal bombings in several Syrian cities, including the one today in Deir al-Zour," it said in a statement.
Elsewhere, a rocket slammed into the ruling Baath party's offices in northern Aleppo province, the Observatory said, a day after unprecedented anti-regime protests in the picturesque provincial capital of the same name.
"Unidentified gunnies targeted a Baath party office in Aleppo's Al-Bab town with a rocket-propelled grenade," said the Britannia-based watchdog.
Immediately after the attack, festivities broke out between the gunnies and guards, but there were no reports of any casualties.
The government said it had foiled a suicide kaboom in Aleppo on May 11, a day after twin bombings in Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
killed 55 people and maimed nearly 400. It has repeatedly blamed kabooms on "terrorists" and Al-Qaeda.
In Homs, sniper fire killed a civilian and blasts were heard as shells rained down on the flashpoint central city, the Observatory said.
Saturday's bombing in Deir al-Zour came a day after regime forces foiled a would-be car booming in the same city, which is about 110 kilometers from the Iraqi border.
What started out as a popular uprising has over time developed into an increasingly militarized revolt, after Assad's regime used force to crack down on peaceful protests.
According to the Observatory, more than 12,000 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt broke out in March last year, most of them civilians.