Asia

Home page

Asia

Death toll of Damascus blast climbs to 11: state media

05 November 2012 19:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The death toll of the blast that struck al-Mazzeh district in Syriaâ€™s capital Damascus earlier Monday has risen to 11, the state media reported, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"Terrorists" on Monday detonated a booby trapped car in al- Mazzeh district, which is largely dominated by people from the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the ruling elites belong.

The blast sent plumes of smoke over the area and left scores of people injured, the state media said, adding that the injured include children, some of whom are in critical conditions.

The blast was coupled with a suicide car bombing in the central province of Hama that killed two people, the state-run SANA news agency said, adding that the car had been rigged with one ton of explosives.

Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 50 members of regular soldiers were killed by the blast, which ripped through a troopsâ€™ checkpoint in al-Ziyara village.

Separately, at least 20 rebel fighters were killed Monday by the aerial bombardment of a Syrian warplane in the northern province of Idlib.

Still, such accounts are difficult of being checked independently.

Explosions have become daily occurrences across Syria as battles between the armed rebels and the government troops are gaining momentum.

A shadowy group linked to al-Qaida terror network, calling itself al-Nusra, has claimed responsibility for most of the blasts that have rocked the country during the 20-month-old crisis.