Damascus: Two bombs attached to a bus carrying Syrian troops exploded in Damascus during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, a military official said.
Fourteen people were killed in the attack, one of the deadliest in the capital in years.
While the Syrian government's decade-long conflict with insurgents continues in parts of the country including the rebel-held northwest, bombings in Damascus have become exceedingly rare since President Bashar Assad's troops pushed opposition fighters from the capital's suburbs in 2018.
The explosions, which also left several wounded, happened at a busy intersection, near a main bus transfer point where commuters and schoolchildren typically converge. After the blasts, Syrian state TV showed footage of smoke rising from a charred bus as soldiers hosed down the vehicle and onlookers flocked to a nearby bridge to watch.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but several insurgent and jihadist groups that seek to overthrow Assad are active in Syria.
Separately, rescue workers reported 10 people were killed, including four children and a woman, in government shelling of a town in the last rebel enclave in the country's northwest. The U.N. Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Cutts described as shocking the reports of the shelling that hit a market and roads near schools as students were heading to classes.
That was one of the most violent attacks in the area since a March 2020 truce in the northwest negotiated by Turkey and Russia allies of the opposition and Syrian government, respectively. The truce has been repeatedly violated, and government forces often vow to take territories still out of their control.
While fighting still rages in the northwest, Assad's forces now control much of Syria after military support from his allies Russia and Iran helped tip the balance of power in his favour. U.S. and Turkish troops, meanwhile, are deployed in part's of the country's north.
In recent years, attacks such as Wednesday's have been rare in Damascus. One of the last major explosions to take place there was in 2017 when suicide bombers hit a judicial office building and a restaurant, killing nearly 60 people. The attacks were claimed by Islamic State group militants. The extremist organization has not held territory in Syria since 2019, but it continues to represent a threat with sleeper cells, mostly hiding in Syria's expansive desert. State media initially described the Damascus attack as a roadside bombing.