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Syria: 13 killed and three injured after explosion destroys bus in Damascus

Syria: 13 killed and three injured after explosion destroys bus in Damascus

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At least 13 people have been killed after an explosion destroyed a bus in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

A local television station said two explosive devices went off as the bus was on the Hafez al Assad bridge – and a third device was being defused by an army engineering unit.

At least three other people have been wounded, in what officials have called a “terrorist” blast, the TV channel reported.

Security forces inspect the site of an explosion in central Damascus, Syria October 20, 2021. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Image:
The bus was on Hafez al Assad bridge at the time of the explosion

Syrian state TV showed footage of the charred bus and said the blasts occurred during rush hour when people were heading to work and school.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred at a main bus transfer point, where vehicles converge and head out to different neighbourhoods of the capital.

Military police inspect the site of an explosion in central Damascus, Syria October 20, 2021. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Image:
13 people have been killed and at least three have been wounded

Such attacks in Damascus have been rare in recent years after government forces captured suburbs that were once held by insurgents.

President Bashar Assad’s forces now control much of the country after Russia and Iran helped him take back power.

Since the country’s civil war began in March 2011, the United Nations says at least 350,000 people have been killed.

The war has also left more than half of the country’s population displaced, including five million who are refugees abroad.

In August, Syria’s state media said a short circuit triggered an explosion in the gas tank of a bus carrying soldiers, resulting in one being killed and three others being injured.

In 2017, an explosion hit a bus convoy carrying evacuees near the Syrian city of Aleppo.

At the time, the opposition rescue service claimed at least 100 people were killed.

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