Syria: 18 killed as car bombers strike capital city Damascus

At least 18 people were killed and many were injured as car bombers strike Syria’s capital city Damascus on Sunday. It was the deadliest attack to hit the Syrian capital in months.

Security forces intercepted three car bombers on their way into the city early on Sunday morning, Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Two of the vehicles were blown up on the outskirts of Damascus, state television said.

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18 people including at least seven members of pro-regime security forces and two civilians were killed in the attack, a Britain-based monitor ‘The Observatory’ said. The remaining victims were not identified.

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.

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.

With PTI inputs.

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