Explosion kills 6 soldiers in Damascus suburb: activists

Email|Print|Comments       twitter     facebook     Sina Microblog     reddit    

DAMASCUS, Aug. 7 -- Six soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded when an explosion shook a suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus Wednesday as part of the endless circle of violence that has engulfed the country over the past two years, the Britain-Based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The blast rocked the Qatana suburb, the Observatory said, adding that an officer was among those killed.

Meanwhile, the state-run SANA news agency said that the blast in Qatana was caused by an explosive device, adding that seven people were killed. However, it stopped short of identifying the victims.

The blast was apparently staged by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, whose members have been behind the bulk of the deadly explosions that rocked Syria over the past 28 months of crisis.

Separately, the Observatory said that a Syrian army colonel and a major were killed by a rebel ambush in the Damascus suburb of Adra. It added that a prisoner was killed and a civilian was injured when a mortar shell struck the central prison of Adra.

Adra is now a main battleground in Damascus due to its strategic location, which connects rebel-held areas in the countryside of Damascus with each other.

In the northern province of al-Qamishli, the Observatory said that the Nusra Front captured several Kurdish civilians and took them to an unknown location as the tense battles are raging between the Kurds and the Nusra fighters in the Kurdish-dominated areas in northern Syria.

Earlier in the day, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said that the armed Kurdish groups in Tal Abyad in the Raqqa province killed 10 members of the Nusra Front in the past 12 hours.

• 18 killed, 56 wounded in blast in pro-gov't Damascus suburb
• 6 Syrians killed in fresh mortar attack in Damascus
• Fresh mortar attacks kill 7 in Syria's Damascus, Aleppo
• Syria denies explosion in Damascus targets security meeting
• Damascus confirmed to have accepted new head of UN Syria chemical weapons probe panel
• Mortars rain down Damascus, superpowers desirous of arming rebels
• Child killed, 9 injured by mortar attack in Damascus
• Big blast rattles central Damascus
• Damascus no longer safe haven in violence-torn Syria
• Daily life in Damascus

We Recommend

• Air Forces arrive at designated area to join China-Russia drill
  
• China’s weekly story (2013.7.27-8.2)
• Top 25 museums in the world in 2013
• Italian Supreme Court confirms Berlusconi's jail verdict
• Run naked as punishment for missing sales target
• Photo story: Will Wulin gain its former fame