The governor of Hama, a senior figure in the Assad regime, has been killed in a car bomb explosion, accoring to the Syrian state state news agency Sana.

Dr Anas Abdul-Razzaq Na'em, who was the head of the Baath party until 2011, was allegedly killed by a car bomb in the Jarajmeh neighborhood of the city on Sunday.

The explosion occurred as Na'em was returning home in a convoy of vehicles in the evening. Another civilian died and several others were injured in the attack.

State TV blamed the attack on rebels.

"Terrorists assassinated...the Hama governor, in a car bomb attack," it said. No rebel group has claimed it carried out the attack.

Na'em was appointed to the governorship in July 2011, four months after the beginning of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

He had replaced Khaled Abdel Aziz, who was sacked by Assad after hundreds of thousands of people protested against the regime. Government troops later crushed the dissent.

Assad's father and predecessor Hafez al-Assad crushed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city in 1982, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people.

PHOTO CAPTION

Bashar Assad and new governor of Hama, Anas Abdul-Razzaq Naem.

Aljazeera