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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: At Least Two Blasts Hit Damascus | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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People walk past damaged buildings in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus, Syria February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh


The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported “at least two blasts” hit the Syria’s capital Damascus on Monday.

A bomb attack hit a southern district of Damascus, Syrian state media reported.

“Initial information of a terrorist explosion in the Midan neighborhood of Damascus,” state television reported in a breaking news alert, giving no further details.

It said the first was a car bomb attack near a police station and the second was caused by a suicide bomber.

The monitor said there were also reports that a second suicide bomber had detonated an explosive belt in the attack.

There was no official confirmation of those details, although the Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime, also reported the attack was near a police station in Midan.

Damascus has been spared much of the violence that has devastated Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-regime protests.

But the capital has been rocked by sporadic bomb attacks.

In December 2016, three police officers were wounded when a seven-year-old girl walked into a police station in Midan wearing an explosive belt that was remotely detonated.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began.