DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed at least 14 people Wednesday in the bloodiest such attack in years, the SANA state news agency reported.
“A terrorist bombing using two explosive devices targeted a passing bus” on a key bridge in the capital, the news agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of 14 dead and three wounded.
Images released by SANA showed a burning bus and what it said was a bomb squad defusing a third device that had been planted in the same area.
Al-Ikhbariyah Syria television news network reported the blasts occurred during rush hour when people were heading to work and school.
It said a third device was defused by an army engineering unit.
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that the terrorist roadside bomb attack occurred at around 6:45 a.m. local time (0345 GMT).
Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Khaled al-Rahmoun later condemned the attack, and said in a statement that the incident came as “terrorists have suffered defeats in many parts of the Syrian territory. Whoever orchestrated this cowardly act sought to harm the largest possible number of people.”
He stressed that “the perpetrators will be pursued and brought to justice. The campaign against terrorism will not be abandoned... and we will pursue the terrorists who committed the heinous crime wherever they might be.”
Since 2011, Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy, leading to the emergence of Daesh and other terrorist groups in the Arab country.
The Syrian government has repeatedly condemned the U.S. and the EU for waging economic terrorism on the country through their unilateral sanctions, holding them responsible for the suffering of the Syrian people, especially now that the country is grappling with a deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Damascus has also been critical of the United Nations for keeping silent on the destructive role of the U.S. and EU, among other parties supporting terrorism in Syria.