Three blasts strike Syrian Interior Ministry in Damascus

Get short URL

Published time: December 12, 2012 20:28
Edited time: December 13, 2012 03:28

The Syrian Interior Ministry in Damascus has been hit by three blasts, reportedly causing deaths and severe damages to the office, state TV reported. No details of deaths have been given, but the ministers reportedly managed to escape.

­There were conflicting reports coming on the number of dead and injured. The local TV station said that there have been no casualties, whereas the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights informed of 25 casualties. There have also been reports about seven killed. No official information has been given so far.

"Three terrorist explosions, including one caused by a car bomb, struck the interior ministry in Kfar Sousa," SANA state news agency said. "Several people were killed and injured."

The blasts ruined the entrance of the ministerial building with one of the three explosives originating from a nearby car.

The Interior Ministry is located in the southwest district of Kafar Souseh, on the outskirt of the capital where fighting between government forces and rebels was previously reported.

The pro-government TV station Al Ikhbariya broadcast footage of concrete rubble, blood on the floor and a two-metre-wide hole in the road.

Local witnesses were saying that they heard explosions and that a huge plume of smoke was seen rising from the building.

The state-run Sana news agency earlier reported the Justice Ministry in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana was also hit by two car bombs on Wednesday, leaving one person killed and several were injured.

The Syrian capital has witnessed numerous similar attacks targeting government institutions as the civil war continues to ravage the country with death toll surpassing 40,000 since March last year.

Meanwhile, the representatives from more than 100 countries, including the US, Britain, France, and Gulf countries, gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on Wednesday to affirm their support for the Syrian opposition fighting the regime of Bashar Assad.

The meeting came one day after US President Barack Obama said the Syrian Opposition Coalition “is now inclusive enough" to be deemed the "legitimate representative" of the Syrian people.