Car bomb kills 8 as Syria says it foiled wider attack
A suicide car bomb killed at least eight people in a rare attack in the heart of Syria's capital on Sunday, as authorities said they foiled a wider assault by intercepting two other explosives-laden vehicles.
The attack unfolded ahead of the morning commute on the first work day after a major Muslim holiday. The Interior Ministry said security forces tracked all three cars and intercepted two of them at checkpoints on the airport road. The third made it into the city center, where the driver blew himself up near Tahreer Square.
The Syrian Minister of Local Administration, Hussein Makhlouf, said the response marked a "major success in foiling a plot" to cause mass casualties.
Syrian state TV reported eight killed and another 12 people wounded in the blast near Damascus' old city. Lebanon's al-Manar TV, which is close to the Syrian government, and Diary of a Mortar, a Syrian activist group in the capital, said at least 19 people were killed.
