Syria: 14 dead, 3 injured after 2 IED blasts on military bus in Damascus

At least 14 were dead, and 22 others were reported wounded in Syria after two IED explosions destroyed a military bus in the capital city of Damascus. A local television station, Sana TV that called the blast a "terrorist" attack, confirmed on Tuesday that two explosives went off in war-torn country’s Army bus on the Hafez al Assad bridge. A third blast was averted by a Syrian army engineering unit. The explosives were detonated during the rush hour in the capital, and photos emerged on the local TV station’s Telegram account. 

A vehicle could be seen blown up with human body parts scattered all over the road under the Jisr al-Rais bridge. The blast, that occurred in the region dominated by rebel and jihadist groups that seek to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's regime came at the time when fierce army shellfire also claimed at least 10 lives near the northwest, reports confirmed. Syrian civil defence teams arrived at the scene and transferred the injured to the hospital. In the images that they shared on Twitter, the fire crew was seen putting out the flames resulting from the explosion. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. 

[Credit: Twitter/@rien4djri]

‘Cowardly act,’ says Damascus police commander

Damascus police commander Major General Hussein Jumaa told state TV that the explosion was "a cowardly act”. He condemned the terror faction that may have been responsible for the blast as he asked the public to alert the police in case any suspicious object was discovered. The entire area was cordoned off by investigators as the Syrian Army forces and the workers were spotted clearing the shredded material and debris from the obliterated bus. The military shortly issued the statement confirming the multiple casualties as it wrote: 

"At around 6:45 [03:45 GMT], a terrorist attack was carried out during the passage of an army bus in Damascus near the Rais [presidential] bridge. Two explosive devices, previously planted in the vehicle, were detonated. As a result, 14 soldiers were killed and several others were injured. Mine pickers defused the third explosive device that was also planted in the bus", the Syrian military said in a statement. 

The recent bomb blast was the deadliest in Damascus in several years since president Bashar-al-Asad regained power in most of the Syrian territory after military backing from Iran and Russia.