Handout / AFP - Getty Images

A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syrian firefighters dousing a burning truck at the site of a blast in the eastern city of Deir Zor Saturday.

A car bomb in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor killed nine people and wounded about 100 Saturday, the official SANA news agency said.

It said the bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber and that the dead included guards at a military installation which is near a housing complex, according to Reuters.

Syrian state television showed damaged, burning buildings and vehicles after the blast and black smoke could be seen rising above the city, BBC News reported.

The BBC said the explosion was the latest in a series of blasts that were thought to be al-Qaida operations.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he believed al-Qaida was responsible for two suicide car bombs that killed at least 55 people in Syria a week ago.

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He also said that the death toll in the country's 14-month conflict was now at least 10,000.

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"A few days ago there was a huge, serious, massive terrorist attack. I believe that there must be al-Qaida behind it. This has created again very serious problems," Ban told a youth event at U.N. headquarters in New York, Reuters reported. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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