Middle East

The Latest: State TV says 17 killed in Damascus attack

8 p.m.

Syrian state TV says the suicide attack on a police station in Damascus has killed 17 civilians and police.

Lt. Gen. Mohammad al-Shaar, the interior minister, says two “terrorists” attacked the police station with a number of bombs on Monday, before one of them blew himself up. He says the other bomber made it inside the compound, where police killed him, causing his bomb to explode.

No one immediately claimed the attack. Syria’s government is battling the Islamic State group as well as other insurgents as part of a complex, six-year-old civil war.

___

4:30 p.m.

Syria’s Interior Ministry says several police officers and civilians were killed in a suicide attack on a police station in central Damascus.

State-affiliated al-Ikhbariyeh TV reported earlier Monday that an attacker detonated a car bomb in front of a police station in the city’s al-Midan neighborhood, before two more suicide bombers blew themselves up. The station’s reporter later said he was not sure if a car bomb was used.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said seven state officials and four civilians were killed.

The director of the nearby al-Mujtahed Hospital was quoted by local media as saying that seven people were killed.

Firefighters arrived at the scene within hours to inspect the damage, according to al-Ikhbariyeh’s on location report. The blasts damaged the lower floors of the building and shattered the windows on one side.

Ambulances rushed to the scene and security agents cordoned off the area.

___

3:30 p.m.

Syrian state media says a suicide car bomber has struck a police station in the capital, Damascus.

The Al-Ikhbariyeh TV station says the bomber detonated his vehicle in front of a police station in the capital’s al-Midan neighborhood. It says two attackers blew themselves up in the same place, with one managing to enter the station.

The station says several people were killed or wounded.

Ambulances rushed to the scene and security agents cordoned off the area.

___

2 p.m.

A Syrian war monitoring group says at least eight Hezbollah fighters have been killed in a drone strike in the eastern Syrian desert.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday a drone of unknown affiliation struck a position of the Lebanese militant group, which is fighting alongside government forces.

A Hezbollah official confirmed the attack but could not confirm the toll. The official was not authorized to speak to the media so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hezbollah and other pro-government forces are battling the Islamic State group in eastern Syria.

Related Articles

Back to top button