SOHR: ISIS claims responsibility for deadly Damascus car blast

The Islamic State (ISIS) on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a deadly car bomb on a police station in the capital of Damascus that killed a policeman.

A car exploded in northern Damascus at the Barzeh police station on Wednesday morning, killing a lieutenant colonel and injuring four others, the Syrian interior ministry said.

“Investigations are underway to discover the circumstances behind the incident,” the ministry’s statement added.

ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channels, saying that its members had managed to booby trap a car and exploded it at a police station.

Attacks by terrorist groups in Damascus are rare as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has managed to retake control over areas near the capital that were under the control of rebels.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights blamed the blast on ISIS and said that it injured seven people, including some in critical condition.

ISIS seized control of large swathes of Syrian lands in 2014 but the terror group was declared territorially defeated in 2019 as Assad’s forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the country’s northern and eastern areas overran regions that the jihadist group controlled.

Despite it being declared devoid of territorial control, ISIS continues to pose a serious security risk on the country, frequently launching attacks from the vast Syrian desert and killing scores of people.

Source:  Rudaw