Attack on military bus in Damascus leaves at least 14 dead

At least 14 people were killed on Wednesday in an attack on a military bus in Damascus, where such a bloody attack had not been recorded in four years, and moments later, at least 13 were killed in a Syrian government bombardment of rebel areas.

At the moment, the attack was not claimed but the Government forces bombed Idlib province an hour later, the last great jihadist and rebel stronghold, in the northwest of the country, causing at least 13 deaths, mostly civilians.

At 06:45 (03:45 GMT), a military bus that was circulating near a strategic bridge in the capital “was the target of a terrorist attack with two explosive devices attached to the bus, causing the death of 14 people and leaving several injured,” SANA said. , citing a military source.

A military source cited by SANA explained that the vehicle had two attached explosive devices and that a third device “fell from the bus after the explosion” and that “it was dismantled”.

Images released by the Syrian agency showed rescuers inspecting the charred bus in a generally lively area of ​​the Syrian capital.

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According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has a wide network of sources in Syria, all the dead are military.

The war in Syria, which began in 2011 as a result of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, has lost intensity in recent years and attacks of this type are increasingly rare, especially in Damascus.

“We hadn’t seen such incidents in a long time, we thought this was over,” said Salam, an employee of a local grocery store.

It is the deadliest attack perpetrated in Damascus since an attack claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) against the Palace of Justice in March 2017, which left some 30 fatalities.

During the conflict, Damascus has not been as hit as other areas of the country, especially since the military and allied militias conquered the last rebel stronghold near the capital in 2018.

Shelling in Idlib

About an hour after the attack in Damascus, the army carried out a bombardment in the rebel stronghold of Idlib, killing 13 people – 10 of them civilians – and one fighter, the OSDH reported. A woman and three children died in the attack, explained the same source, which reported 26 wounded.

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It is one of the bloodiest attacks since a truce in Idlib came into force in March 2020, sponsored by Russia and Turkey, the two main foreign actors in the Syrian conflict.

“At eight in the morning, we woke up to the bombings. The children were terrified and yelled, we didn’t know what to do or where to go ”Bilal Trissi, a father of two children who lives near the attacked area, told AFP.

“They have bombed us in our neighborhood and in the market. There are children who have died and people who have lost limbs. We don’t know why, what are we guilty of? ”He commented desperately.

At the hospital where the victims were transferred, an AFP correspondent saw a man crying next to the remains of a 10-year-old girl.

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At the same time, six fighters from the main pro-regime militia, the National Defense Forces, died and seven others were injured on Wednesday during an explosion in an ammunition warehouse in the central Hama province, according to the OSDH. . The circumstances of this incident are unclear.

Reconquest of the regime

These attacks call into question the government’s messages as the ten years of war are behind us and stability is guaranteed to start reconstruction and investment projects as soon as possible.

President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is struggling to break out of international isolation and had made some progress recently.

Also supported by Iran and allied militias, the army has retaken almost all of Syria’s major cities.

But the country continues to be fragmented. The Kurds, Backed by the United States, they control the northeast of the country, while other areas in the north remain under the control of the Jihadists and rebels, or Turkish forces from their Syrian backers.

For its part, the self-proclaimed “caliphate” by the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria ended up collapsing. Both countries announced their victory against the jihadists at the end of 2017 and in 2019, respectively.

The war in Syria has caused nearly half a million deaths, according to the OSDH, and forced half of the prewar population to flee their homes. (I)