Damascus rocked by suicide blast, 2 others failed
BEIRUT — A series of car bomb blasts shook the Syrian capital, Damascus, early Sunday, killing 21 people and highlighting security gaps in parts of the country controlled by President Bashar Assad, according to an opposition monitoring group.
A suicide bomber blew up the car he was driving near the heart of Damascus after being surrounded by security forces, while two other car bombs were detonated after security forces tried to intercept the vehicles on the edge of the city.
Syrian state television reported eight people had died and 13 had been injured, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group based in Britain, reported 21 were killed, including the three attackers.
The attack came on the first full workday after the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the jihadis of the Islamic State and militants linked to al-Qaida have claimed recent attacks inside the city. Bomb attacks in March targeted buses carrying pilgrims and a judicial building near the city center killed dozens of people.
The blasts came as Assad has solidified his control over most of Syria’s main cities, where the majority of the country’s remaining population lives. But that control has come at great cost, with the country’s economy badly battered and many towns and neighborhoods destroyed.
More than half of Syria’s prewar population of 22 million has been displaced since the start of the civil war in 2011, and millions of Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Assad’s forces have struggled to maintain security in areas under their control while continuing to battle rebels seeking Assad’s ouster as well as jihadi groups that have exploited the war’s chaos to seize territory and set up operations.