(Damascus) An officer was killed and four police officers injured on Wednesday in an attack on a police station in Damascus, claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which is the first attack in the Syrian capital for months.
In a statement on the Telegram messaging application, the jihadist group claimed to have “detonated a bomb targeting a vehicle inside a police station” in Damascus.
The Syrian Interior Ministry said earlier that a Damascus police lieutenant colonel died “after a vehicle exploded inside the Barzeh police station compound.”
Four other police officers were injured, the ministry said that an investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of the incident.
On October 13, 2022, 24 soldiers were killed in an attack near Damascus attributed to IS.
The jihadist group controlled large territories from 2014 in Syria, even approaching the surroundings of Damascus. But he was defeated territorially in March 2019 in this country, especially in the north where he was fought by the international anti-jihadist coalition led by the United States, allied with Kurdish forces.
Explosions have repeatedly targeted military vehicles or civilians in the Syrian capital, without it being possible to determine their origin.
On April 2, a car bomb exploded in another district of Damascus, Mazzeh, housing the United Nations headquarters and embassies, injuring two people according to the Interior Ministry.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), based in the United Kingdom and which has an extensive network of sources in Syria, these incidents stem from settling of accounts in a country ravaged by war.
The conflict in Syria was triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations.
Involving regional and international actors, it resulted in around half a million deaths.
Nearly half of Syrians are now refugees or internally displaced, and swathes of the territory still escape government control.