Damascus, Feb. 15 (BNA) A bomb attached to a bus carrying Syrian soldiers exploded in Damascus this morning, Tuesday, killing one soldier and wounding 11 others, state television reported.
The report stated that the explosion occurred during rush hour at a customs roundabout near the Umayyad Square in the capital. No further details were provided. No one immediately claimed responsibility.
Such attacks have occurred in Damascus in recent months amid a period of calm in the capital. Government forces captured the city’s rebel-held eastern neighborhoods in 2018, reports the Associated Press.
Government forces now control much of Syria with the help of President Bashar al-Assad’s two allies, Russia and Iran, while opposition fighters are mostly trapped in the country’s northwest Idlib province. Meanwhile, US and Turkish forces are deployed in parts of the north and east of the country.
And in October, two bombs attached to a bus carrying Syrian soldiers exploded in Damascus, killing 14 people, one of the deadliest bombings in the capital in years. An unknown group calling itself the Qasioun Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack at that time.
In recent years, attacks in Damascus have been rare. One of the last major bombings was in 2017 – when suicide bombers targeted a judicial office building and a restaurant, killing nearly 60 people. ISIS fighters claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The extremist organization has not controlled any territory in Syria since 2019, but it remains a threat to sleeper cells, most of which are hiding in the vast Syrian desert.
ISIS fighters attacked Syrian forces in central and eastern Syria. The extremist group has also launched attacks on US-backed Kurdish-led fighters in the country’s northeast, including a raid on a prison in late January that sparked ten days of fighting in the city of Hasaka. The clash left nearly 500 people dead.
The conflict in Syria began in March 2011, killing nearly half a million people, uprooting half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, and leaving large parts of the country devastated.