Eight security personnel have died in a car bomb blast at a police station in Damascus, Syria’s capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“At least eight regime forces were killed, and a number of
civilians injured, after a large explosion caused by a car bomb
hit the Jobar neighborhood near a police station,” said SOHR
director, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The precise number of casualties remains ambiguous, but a 'number
of civilians' were also injured, according to AFP. A Sky News
Arabic correspondent placed the immediate death toll closer to
10, whereas an anonymous Syrian government official told
Associated Press that three were killed, and 'several' others
wounded.
The explosion took place at around 5:30am local time (02:30 GMT),
on Sunday morning, and was speculated in social media to have
been instigated by the Al-Qaeda allied al-Nusra Front insurgents.
However, there has not yet been any confirmation of the
perpetrators’ identities.
Brief gunfire accompanying the blast was reported in the city's
Abbasids Square and around Parliament Square, with some local
agencies also reporting later clashes in both Aleppo and Homs.
Clashes between rebels and regime forces have been ongoing in the
central northeastern area of Damascus’ Jobar, according to SOHR.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian students are expected to be
sitting high school diploma tests on Sunday.
Multiple explosions struck the outskirts of Damascus last month
when airstrikes – attributed to Israel, but not confirmed –
blasted military posts at the beginning of May, with the
explosions reportedly killing scores of soldiers.
The conflict in Syria has entered its third year, with Damascus
frequently being the site of bomb attacks. At least 80,000 people
have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar
Assad began in March 2011, according to UN estimates.