Explosive device blows up car in Syria’s Damascus

An explosive device detonated in a car in an upscale neighborhood of Damascus, Syrian state media said on Saturday, quoting a police source.

Security incidents, including blasts targeting military or civilian vehicles, occur intermittently in Damascus. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blast or who it targeted.

But it came with tensions high in Syria’s capital after Iran vowed retaliation for an air strike it blamed on Israel. The April 1 strike destroyed Iran’s consular annex at Tehran’s embassy in Damascus, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals.

“The explosion heard a short while ago in the Mazzeh area resulted from an explosive device detonating in a car in al-Huda square,” Syria’s official SANA news agency said, quoting a Damascus police command source.

It added that there were no injuries.

The incident happened in the Mazzeh area, where Iran’s embassy and other foreign missions are located.

Both Damascus and Tehran blame Israel for the consular raid, but it has not commented.

The consular strike came against the backdrop of Israel and Hamas’s ongoing war, which began with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.