A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed 14 people on Wednesday in the bloodiest such attack to strike the Syrian capital in fo
A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed 14 people on Wednesday in the bloodiest such attack to strike the Syrian capital in four years, the SANA state news agency reported. There was no immediate claim for the bombing but moments later shelling by government forces killed eight people in the Idlib region controlled by groups that have claimed such attack in the past. “A terrorist bombing using two explosive devices targeted a passing bus” at a key bridge in the capital, the news agency said, reporting that 14 people had been killed and at least three wounded. Images released by SANA showed first responders searching the charred carcass of the bus and what the news agency said was a bomb squad defusing a third device planted in the same area. A military source quoted by the state agency said the bomb had been planted on the bus itself and was detonated as it passed near the Hafez al-Assad bridge, close to the national museum in the heart of the capital. Later on Wednesday, the director of SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant groups online, said that a militant group called Qasiyun Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Damascus had been largely spared such violence in recent years, especially since troops and allied militia retook the last significant rebel bastion near the capital in 2018. The attack is the deadliest in the capital since a bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group targeted the Justice Palace in March 2017, killing at least 30 people. Around an hour after the Damascus attack, Syrian regime shelling struck the war-ravaged town of Ariha, in the northwestern region of Idlib.
