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A SUICIDE CAR bomber pursued by security forces blew himself up in eastern Damascus today, with a monitor reporting that 18 people were killed in the deadliest attack to hit the Syrian capital in months.
Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said security forces intercepted three car bombers on their way into the city early this morning.
State television said two of the vehicles were blown up on the outskirts of the city.
A third man managed to reach the eastern Tahrir Square district, where he was surrounded but able to detonate a bomb.
The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor, said 18 people were killed in the bombing, including at least seven members of pro-regime security forces and two civilians. It had not identified the remaining victims.
Syrian state news agency Sana quoted an interior ministry statement as saying two of the vehicles had been “destroyed” at a roundabout on the road to the city’s airport.
The driver of the third blew himself up while being pursued, it said, “killing a number of civilians, injuring others, and causing material damage to public and private properties”.
Extensive damage
An AFP correspondent at Tahrir Square saw extensive damage to nearby buildings. Two bombed-out cars were visible to one side of the square, which was strewn with debris.
A woman was crying in an apartment near the site of the attack. Her balcony had collapsed and the living room was a mess of broken glass and shattered masonry, with pictures and curtains strewn across the floor.
The woman said her daughter had been taken to hospital after being injured by flying glass.
Tahrir Square resident Mohammad Tinawi told AFP he had heard “gunfire at around 6am (3am Irish time), then an explosion which smashed the glass of houses in the neighbourhood”.
He said he had seen Red Crescent volunteers treating two wounded soldiers. A shopkeeper confirmed that the explosion had gone off at around 6am.
Damascus has been spared the large-scale battles that have devastated other major Syrian cities during the country’s six-year civil war. However, dozens of people have been killed in bombings, particularly on the outskirts of the capital.
In mid-March, bomb attacks on a courthouse and restaurant in central Damascus killed 32 people. That rare assault in the heart of the city, which remains under government control, was claimed by the Islamic State group.
That came days after two explosions that left 74 dead in the capital’s Old City and were claimed by the Tahrir al-Sham coalition led by the jihadist Fateh al-Sham Front.
Battlefronts around Damascus have calmed since a May deal that saw opposition fighters withdraw from several neighbourhoods, along with a separate agreement on “de-escalation” zones — including one in a rebel stronghold just outside the capital.
Syria’s conflict broke out with anti-government protests in 2011, but has since evolved into a multi-front war that has killed more than 320,000 people.
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I’ve also heard that Cadbury’s have hacked off one-fifth of Freddo the Frog .
And our giving redundancies to their staff as they are moving operations to a cheaper country
everybody is leaving. I am hoping to go myself and I am in the higher tax bracket. I stayed because i felt it served my country to pay tax and support others. I am now over it. It doesn’t serve me anymore. I am in debt and I would be better off elsewhere.
and when I say debt, its minimum and I can pay it back. Not compared to the fraudsters that gambled. They have put me and many others in debt
Dear Mr. Journalist. It’s “how quickly”, not “how quick”. When describing a verb, you use an adverb, not an adjective. I know that the internet likes to bugger with adverbs, particularly if it pertains to doing anything “direct”, but you, as indebted as you are to the English language for your living should be able to show that language just a modicum of respect.
I wish wikileaks would stop invading other people’s privacy. It worries me to think what would happen if they started targeting business and political figures over here, not that there’s anything to hide of course.
Fake account
Fake account but some of the view expressed aren’t far off the YFG mentality
I suppose Mr and Ms Majority really thought you looked like a silent when you were born?
Silent majority who are you?
Looks like Kevin and yfg are best buddies .. Interesting
Suzie are you and davedunne the same person? You both seem a bit obsessed with me.
Is that the best you could come up with ?
I differ in policy to yfg on most issue. It’s a careerists clubs for most. Boosts the cv for various employers. I dislike yfg and would never vote FG after what they’ve done.
have your say