DAMASCUS, May 23 -- A car bomb went off in Syria's central city of Homs on Tuesday, killing three and wounding 15 others, just a couple of days after the city was declared free of rebels, state TV reported.

The car bomb was detonated in the al-Zahra'a neighborhood in Homs, according to the report.

It added that the car was suspected by the authorities at early time Tuesday, with police haunting it down, before the suicide bomber set it off in al-Zahra'a neighborhood, which has been the target of several bombings before as its residents belong to a sect supportive of the Syrian government.

The blast came just two days after the governor of Homs, Talal Barazi, declared the city of Homs as a rebel free city, following the evacuation of the last batch of rebels and their families from al-Waer neighborhood, the last rebel-held area in Homs city.

Barazi was cited by the state TV as saying that the blast comes as a response to the military operations in the countryside of Homs, and also to the "success" of the al-Waer evacuation deal.

Meanwhile, the TV aired live footage of the targeted site in Homs, showing crowds of people wandering streets strewn with rubble and debris, with a building whose facade was damaged as well as shops in the bottom floor.

It's apparently a message by the ultra-radical groups that even if they are out of the city, they could still be carrying out explosions in that key Syrian city, analysts say.