Damascus, London – At least 16 people were killed, including civilians and security forces, in twin suicide bombings that targeted on Monday the Midan police station in the Syrian capital Damascus.

This is the second such attack in the area in ten months and since 2011.

Damascus has been relatively kept away from the conflict raging in the country, but it constantly comes under rocket attacks fired by opposition fighters fortified on the outskirts of the city.

Bomb attacks have also been frequent.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll to at least 16 in Monday’s attack. At least eight of the victims were from the police force, four were civilians and four others have not been identified.

A large number of people have been wounded, some of them seriously.

The ISIS terrorist group announced on Tuesday its responsibility for the Midan attack, saying that it was carried out by three of its members.

State television broadcast video of destruction inside a room in the police station where the suicide bomber likely set off his explosives.

Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar said that terrorists targeted the guards at the Midan police station with grenades, killing several before one of them blew himself up.

A second attacker made it to the first floor of the building where he clashed with police before being killed. He managed to detonate his explosives before dying.

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