At least 17 dead as suicide bombings hit Damascus

At least 17 people were killed and many more injured on Monday by suicide bombings that targeted a police station in the Midan neighbourhood of Damascus, the capital of Syria.

Several suicide bombers, believed to have been three, detonated themselves in front of and inside the police station, according to authorities.

Local police officers learned that one of the bombers used a hand grenade to attack the police station from a viaduct before he detonated his explosive device at about 13:30 on the viaduct which runs parallel to the police station.

"Previously, the attacker whose identity was unknown attacked us. The terrorists outside the police station launched the attack from the viaduct. Police officers and the army unit together resisted and foiled the attack," said Tarek, a police officer.

Afterward, another bomber detonated his explosive device at the gate of the police station, while a third bomber entered the police station and detonated his explosive device after being surrounded by police officers and an army unit.

The Syrian regime's Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar told reporters that one of the attackers had managed to enter the police station and reach the first floor of the building.

Daesh said three of its fighters carried out an attack on a Damascus police station on Monday.

In a statement distributed on a Daesh channel via the Telegram messaging service on Tuesday, the group said two of the fighters fired shots in the station before blowing themselves up. The third blew himself up later as "reinforcements" arrived.

Local state television showed images of damage from inside the building, with a black police uniform shirt covered in dust lying in the rubble of partially collapsed walls.

Policemen carried one body away from the scene wrapped inside a white tarpaulin.

The same police station in Midan was targeted last December when a seven-year-old female suicide bomber blew herself up inside the station.

Local reactions

According to a witness, because the explosion occurred during working hours and the proximity of the police station to the old city of Damascus, many people were killed and nearby cars, houses and buildings were all destroyed.

"This is a crime. It's a terrorist act. Nobody will accept such an act. It is tragic to see the corpses on the ground. We just began having better conditions and good supplies, but what about those people who lost their cars and houses?" said a local resident.

Manal, a 28-year-old teacher living in Midan, said she heard at least two blasts on Monday afternoon.

“I was coming back from work when I heard the sound of an explosion, it was around 2:30 pm, I didn’t know what it was, and then there was another explosion a few minutes later and buildings shook,” she said.

“Afterwards I heard gunfire, which usually happens to get people to move out of the way and clear the road so ambulances can get through to retrieve the injured,” she added.

Damascus attacks

Damascus has also been rocked by occasional bomb blasts throughout the Syrian conflict, including previous attacks on Midan, a middle-class residential and shopping district.

In December 2016, three police officers were wounded when a seven-year-old girl walked into the neighbourhood’s police station wearing an explosive belt that was remotely detonated.

Rebel groups have been gradually expelled from territory in the capital they once held, though they maintain a presence in a handful of positions, including the Jobar neighbourhood.

They also hold territory in the eastern Ghouta region outside the capital, and have regularly launched rockets into the city.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since its conflict began with protests that were met with a harsh regime crackdown.