BEIRUT: A suicide car bomb tore through the parking lot of a military compound in Syria's eastern city of Deir el-Zour on Saturday, the latest in a wave of blasts targeting security agencies in recent months, the country's state media reported.

State TV said the blast caused casualties, and showed footage of damaged buildings, smoldering cars, and trucks turned upside down by the blast. Debris filled a street that was stained with blood. The station said UN observers based in the city visited the site of the blast.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi posted on his Twitter account that seven people were killed and 100 wounded in the blast.

He said the bomb weighed 500 kilograms.

The state-run news agency Sana said the blast hit the parking lot of a military residential compound. An opposition group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that the site of the explosion was close to the city branches of the Military Intelligence Directorate and Air Force Intelligence.

Security agencies in several Syrian cities have been targeted by a wave of explosions since late last year, raising fears that al Qaeda-linked militants, possibly including fighters from neighbouring Iraq, have made strong inroads into Syria's rebel movement.

The most recent bombing targeted an intelligence building in Damascus on May 10. It struck during morning rush hour and the high death toll—some 55 people—made it the deadliest such attack since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March of last year.

Deir el-Zour is about 100 kilometres from the Iraqi border. Saturday's blast came a day after the state-run news agency Sana reported that authorities foiled an attempt to blow up a car rigged with explosives in the city and detained those involved.