A bomb blast in a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus killed four people and seriously wounded a member of a faction that has backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country's bitter civil war, activists said today.

Iran, Syria lash out at Turkey's NATO request

Iran lashed out Friday at Turkey for requesting NATO to supply it with Patriot surface-to-air missiles to deploy along the border with Syria, denouncing the step as counterproductive.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani made the remarks at a news conference after visit to its increasingly diplomatically isolated ally, Syria.

Larijani said Iran — unlike "the others when it comes to Syria" — is seeking a peaceful solution to the war.

"The internal crisis in Syria cannot be solved through the deployment of such weapons," said Larijani. The Syrian Foreign Ministry called the Turkish move "a new provocative step."

NATO said Wednesday it will consider the request "without delay."

The Damascus explosion late Thursday in the Yarmouk camp targeted the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the Palestinian group said.

Four people died and a PFLP-GC activist was seriously wounded when the bomb planted under his car went off, the group said, blaming the rebel Free Syrian Army for the attack.

Yarmouk has been pulled into Syria's fighting before, most recently earlier this month when clashes in and around the camp killed and wounded dozens.

The refugee camp is near two southern neighbourhoods of the capital — Tadamon and Hajar Aswad — where rebels and government troops have clashed for weeks.

Regime forces shelled the two neighbourhoods on Friday and also raided the central Damascus neighbourhood of Bab Sreijeh, arresting several people there, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

State-run TV reported that a suicide attacker blew up his car in the northwestern Idlib province Friday, killing at least three people and wounding four. There were no other details.

Iranian politician visits Damascus

Also Friday, visiting Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani held talks with Assad and other officials in Damascus on his way to neighbouring Lebanon.

Iran is Assad's strongest ally in the region, and anti-government activists accuse Tehran of sending both weapons and fighters to Syria. Larijani reiterated Iran's support to the Syrian leadership as it fights against Western "plots being hatched" against Syria and the region, according to state-run news agency SANA.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, right, meets Iran's Parliament speaker Ali Larijani, left, in Damascus Friday. Assad's strongest regional ally is Iran.Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, right, meets Iran's Parliament speaker Ali Larijani, left, in Damascus Friday. Assad's strongest regional ally is Iran. (SANA/Reuters)

Before meeting with Assad, Larijani met with leaders of Syria-based Palestinian factions, including the PFLP-GC, and discussed the latest Israeli-Hamas spasm of violence in Gaza that ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce on Wednesday.

He pledged more Iranian assistance to Palestinians there, said Khaled Abdul-Majid, a Damascus-based Palestinian official who attended the meeting.

Speaking in Lebanon a few hours later, Larijani congratulated the Palestinian people for their "victory" in Gaza, which he described as a "tsunami" against Israel.

"It has become clear that the strength and capabilities of the Palestinian resistance is here to stay," he said.

Islamic militants, Kurdish factions add to violence

In other violence around Syria, Islamic extremists, including members of the al-Qaeda inspired Jabhat al-Nusra group, battled Friday with pro-government Kurdish gunmen in the northern town of Ras al-Ayan, near the border with Turkey. The Islamic militants entered the town earlier this month and have since clashed almost daily with the Kurdish gunmen.

The Islamic militants and the Kurdish factions have added to the complexity of Syria's conflict.

When government forces withdrew from Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria in July, they were quickly replaced by Kurdish fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, who would then battle rebels when they attacked predominantly Kurdish areas. The Kurdish group is affiliated with the PKK, rebels fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast region of Turkey.

'It has become clear that the strength and capabilities of the Palestinian resistance is here to stay'—Ali Larijani, Iranian parliament speaker

The Islamic militants, who are fighting on the side of the rebels, have played a bigger role in the Syrian conflict in recent months and many openly say they want to set up an Islamic state. The opposition is split, with some groups strongly opposed to extremism.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with an uprising against Assad's regime, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts, but quickly morphed into a civil war that has since killed more than 40,000 people, according to activists.

Syrian authorities deny there is an uprising in the country and say the rebels are backed by foreign powers that seek to destroy the country.