11 killed in bomb attack in Damascus

At least 11 people, including police officers and civilians, were killed yesterday in a bomb attack at a police headquarters station in Syria’s capital Damascus, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were also injuries in the attack, which involved up to three explosions in the city’s southern district of Midan near a police station.

The interior ministry also reported the attack, saying two suicide bombers had blown themselves up, killing civilians and police officers, but giving no precise toll.

It said the first was a car bomb attack near a police station and the second was caused by a suicide bomber.

Damascus has been spared much of the violence that has devastated Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with prodemocracy protests. But the capital has been rocked by sporadic bomb attacks. In July a bomb killed 20 people in the city.

Series of attacks

Still, since the start of the year, several blasts have struck the capital as well as the city of Homs, which is also under the control of President Bashar Al Assad’s government fighting rebel groups in the six-year war.

Separate suicide bomb attacks that hit Damascus in March were claimed by Daesh and an Islamist insurgent alliance called Tahrir Al Sham which includes Al Qaida’s former Syrian branch.

With the help of Russia and Iranian-backed militias, Damascus has gained the military advantage over the rebels, including some supported by Turkey and the United States.

Al Assad’s government has shored up its rule over Syria’s main urban centres in the populated west of the country.

Since a Moscow-led deescalation plan began in May, Syrian government forces and their allies have focused their energies on battling the ultra-hardline Daesh.

More than 465,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began.