Damascus bomber kills 18 after chase

Damascus, July 2: A suicide car bomber pursued by security forces blew himself up in eastern Damascus on Sunday, with a monitor reporting 18 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 in the morning.

State television said two of the vehicles were blown up on the outskirts of the city.

A third managed to reach the eastern Tahrir Square district, where the driver was surrounded but able to detonate a bomb.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but previous deadly attacks in Damascus have been claimed by the Islamic State group and rival jihadist factions.

The Britain-based Observatory said 18 people were killed in the bombing, including at least seven members of proregime security forces and two civilians. It had not identified the remaining victims.

It said at least 12 other people were wounded in the blast. 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.”