Four people were killed and six others injured in a car bomb attack in western Damascus on Thursday, state news agency SANA reported.

Four people were killed and six others injured in a car bomb attack in western Damascus on Thursday, state news agency SANA reported.

The blast hit near a research and testing centre affiliated with the ministry of industry in the Sumaria neighborhood of the Syrian capital.

"A terrorist car bomb attack killed four people and wounded six others," SANA reported, adding that the blast damaged shops and cars near the centre.

The centre, established in 1965, tests industrial products, its website says.

Since the beginning of the crisis in March 2011, a series of  car bombs have targeted Damascus and several other Syrian cities, killing dozens.

Syrian army warplanes hit militants' positions in the northwestern province of Idlib, in central Hama province as well as in the northern province of Aleppo and in the coastal city of Latakia.

In the east of Damascus, the Syrian military continued to battle the insurgents in Jubar.