17 dead in Damascus car bombing
A car bomb on a crowded residential street in the Syrian capital of Damascus killed 17 people and injured 14 others, the country's television reported.
A car packed with 440lb of explosives blew up on Mahlak Street, located in a southern neighbourhood of the capital near the junction to the city's international airport, TV reported.
Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdul-Majid called the bombing a "terrorist act" and said all of the victims were civilians. But he declined to say who was behind the blast.
"We cannot accuse any party. There are ongoing investigations that will lead us to those who carried it out," Abdul-Majid told state TV.
Such bombings are rare in Syria, a tightly controlled country where the regime of President Bashar Assad uses heavy-handed tactics to crack down against dissents and instability.
But over the last year, the country has witnessed two major assassinations. Several explosions blamed on Sunni Muslim militants opposed to Syria's secular government have also taken place over the last few years.
Saturday's bombing was by far the largest and tested weaknesses of the government's traditionally tight security grip. It shattered apartment building and car windows and twisted the roof of one car, according to footage aired on Syrian TV.
The explosion occurred at the intersection leading to Saydah Zeinab, a holy shrine for Shiite Muslims that is frequently visited by Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims about five miles away.
An intelligence building is also located in the area, but cars are not normally allowed to park nearby and it was not clear how close the bombing was to the building.
Al-Manar, a satellite TV station allied with Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah, reported that witnesses said more than 14 people were injured including children.
