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Damascus Bomber Strikes After Car Chase

People inspect the damage at the site of a suicide attack in Tahrir Square, in central Damascus, Syria July 2, 2017.
People inspect the damage at the site of a suicide attack in Tahrir Square, in central Damascus, Syria July 2, 2017.

A suicide bomber has launched an attack in the Syrian capital, with reports saying at least 19 people were killed.

Syrian police had been chasing three suspected car bombers that were trying to enter the capital, state TV said, BBC reported.

Police stopped and detonated two of the vehicles, but the third driver entered Tahrir square in the east and blew himself up after being surrounded.

Syria is in the midst of a six-year-long civil war, with Damascus still mostly under government control.

At least 12 people were injured in Sunday’s blast, reports said.

State TV said the attackers had planned to bomb crowded areas in the capital on the first working day after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“The terrorist bombings killed and wounded several civilians and caused physical damage to the area,” a police official told state news agency Sana.

A local resident told AFP he heard “gunfire at around 06:00 (0300 GMT), then an explosion which smashed the glass of houses in the neighborhood”.

No group has said it carried out the attack.

More than 300,000 people have lost their lives in the Syrian war, which began with anti-government protests in 2011.

The UN’s refugee agency says that since the conflict began about 5.5 million people have left the country, and another 6.3 million have been left internally displaced.

 

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