At least 40 people were killed and dozens more wounded in an attack by two suicide bombers in Damascus on Saturday, Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV reported, in an attack the Syrian Observatory said targeted Shia pilgrims.

The attack took place near the Old City of Damascus. Al-Mayadeen, a Lebanon-based TV station, said the bombings targeted buses transporting pilgrims to the Bab al-Saghir cemetery near one of the seven gates of the Old City of Damascus.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the attack had caused fatalities but gave no toll. It said the explosions were caused by “two terrorist bombs”. </s> Two suicide bomb attacks killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens more in Damascus on Wednesday, state media reported, in the second such spate of bombings in the Syrian capital in five days.

The first suicide bomber targeted the Palace of Justice, the main courthouse in central Damascus near the Old City. Justice Minister Najem al-Ahmad told reporters the initial death toll was 31, mostly civilians.

The second suicide blast struck a restaurant in the al-Rabweh area of Damascus to the west of the first attack causing several casualties, state media reported.

State news agency SANA cited the Damascus police as saying that there were 102 injured in the courthouse attack and 28 injured in the restaurant.

Analysts who follow Syria have predicted that as rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad suffer military reverses, they will increasingly turn to guerrilla attacks in territory controlled by the government.

As well as the Damascus bombings of recent days, which coincide with the sixth anniversary of the protests that sparked Syria’s civil war, attackers also twice struck the government-held city of Homs in the past few weeks.

The courthouse bomber set off his explosive device at 1:20 p.m. (1120 GMT) as the police tried to search him and stop him from entering the building, state television cited the Damascus police chief as saying.

Syrian state television broadcast footage from inside the courthouse showing blood splattered on a floor littered with papers, a shoe and broken tiles and stones. Images from a hospital showed a man in a suit on a stretcher with blood on his clothes.

The explosion hit the courthouse “at a time when the area is crowded” with lawyers, judges and civilians, harming a large number of people, Ahmed al-Sayyid, a senior state legal official told state-run al-Ikhbariya TV.

He later added that 45 people had been wounded. No further details were immediately available.

The government and its allies, Russia’s air force, Iran and Shi’ite militias, have also maintained a fierce assault on some rebel-held areas including air strikes and artillery bombardments.

Assad and his allies describe all the rebels fighting against the government, which include jihadists as well as nationalist groups supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies, as terrorists.

“The attack came as a retaliation against the latest victories of the Syrian army and the political victories in Geneva and Astana,” Ahmad said, referring to recent peace talks in Switzerland and Kazakhstan.

State media reported that the second bomber had entered the restaurant and detonated the device after having been chased by security forces.

On Saturday scores of people, most of them Iraqi Shi’ite pilgrims, were killed in a double suicide attack in Damascus claimed by an alliance of jihadist groups known as Tahrir al-Sham.

In late February an attack in central Homs killed dozens of people with coordinated shootings and suicide bombs that targeted two security headquarters and led to the death of a senior official.

That attack was also claimed by Tahrir al-Sham, which includes the Fateh al-Sham group that was formerly known as the Nusra Front until it formally broke ties with al Qaeda last year.

Another suicide attack in Homs on Tuesday killed one person and injured two others, a witness told Reuters. </s> BEIRUT: At least 25 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a court house in Damascus on Wednesday, state media reported, the second bomb attack in the Syrian capital in five days.

The attack targeted the Palace of Justice in central Damascus not far from the Old City. State news agency SANA said there were a "number of wounded" in addition to the initial death toll of 25.

The bomber set off his explosive device after the police tried to stop him from entering the building, Ahmed al-Sayyid, a senior state legal official told al-Ikhbariya TV.

No further details were immediately available.

On Saturday, scores of people, most of them Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims, were killed in a double suicide attack in Damascus claimed by an alliance of jihadist groups known as Tahrir al-Sham. </s> BEIRUT: Suicide attacks on two security service bases in the heart of Syria’s government-held third city of Homs killed 42 people on Saturday, overshadowing peace talks in Geneva, state television and a monitor said. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said that “there were at least six attackers and several of them blew themselves up near the headquarters of state security and military intelligence.” State television reported that the province’s army intelligence chief, General Hassan Daabul, a close confidant of President Bashar al-Assad, was among the dead when the six suicide bombers struck in the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods. Security forces locked down the city center. Homs has been under the full control of the government since May 2014 when rebels withdrew from the center under a UN-brokered truce deal. But it has seen repeated bombings since then. Twin attacks killed 64 people early last year. </s> At least 25 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at the main judicial building in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to state media.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives' vest inside the Justice Palace on Wednesday, SANA news agency said, adding that another 25 people were wounded in the attack.

A second blast in the capital was reported shortly after the first. Breaking news on state television said a suicide bomber had detonated himself at a restaurant in the Rabweh area of Damascus and that a number of people had been killed and wounded.

There was no immediate claim for the bombing, which came as the country's civil war entered its seventh year. </s> Syrian state TV says at least 8 killed, 12 wounded in Damascus blasts (UPDATE)

10:21 (GMT+4) Syrian state TV says at least 8 killed, 12 wounded in Damascus blasts, AP reported.

10:21 (GMT+4) A suicide bomber blew himself up in Tahrir square in central Damascus on Sunday, killing and wounding a number of people, Reuters reported.

The bomber was in one of three car bombs that had been pursued by the authorities. The two other car bombs were destroyed in a separate location in western Damascus, state TV reported. </s> Damascus: Several people were killed and others wounded on Sunday when a suicide bombing struck an eastern district of Damascus, Syrian state television reported.

It said security forces intercepted three suicide car bombers on Sunday morning, blowing up two at the entrance to the city.

The third was able to enter Damascus and blew himself up after being surrounded, causing several deaths and leaving a number of people wounded.

Further details were not immediately available. </s> Video: Deadly suicide bombing kills at least seven in Damascus

At least seven people were killed as three car bombs target Damascus. Sadiya Chowdhury reports. </s> BEIRUT: A second bomb attack hit the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday in an area to the west of an earlier suicide attack, state media said.

A suicide bomber killed at least 25 people in the earlier attack at a courthouse in Damascus, state media reported.
According to Syrian state media, two suicide bombers attack in Damascus, killing at least 31 people.