An explosion on a minibus Thursday in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus wounded 14 people, three of them critically, but there were no fatalities, Syria's health ministry said Friday. Syrian state media earlier reported two deaths, but the ministry said the fatalities were incorrectly recorded.
Syria's Health Ministry said Friday that 14 people were wounded, three of them critically, but that there were no fatalities in the explosion of a minivan taxi a day earlier in a Damascus suburb.
The Health Ministry had said Thursday night that two people were killed in the blast. In a statement Friday, it said the fatalities had been incorrectly recorded based on three severed limbs that were pulled from the wreckage.
After further investigation, the limbs were determined to belong to living patients who were undergoing surgery, the statement said.
Officials said the explosion in Jaramana was caused by an explosive device planted in the minivan taxi, which was carrying passengers at the time of the blast.
A little-known group calling itself Minbar Ansar al-Rasoul issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. Syrian authorities have not announced any arrests or the results of their investigation into the bombing.
Jaramana, which is home to a large population of the Druze religious minority, has faced tensions between some members of the community and Sunni Muslim Syrians supportive of the country’s current Islamist-led government.
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Tensions flared in April 2025, when at least 10 people were killed in sectarian clashes between Druze gunmen and pro-government fighters.
The apparent bombing attack, the third in just over a month, is the latest of several challenges that interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has faced since coming to power in December 2024 after leading an insurgency that overthrew the Assad dynasty and ended its half-century rule.
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IS group attacks
Recent attacks include one person killed and 36 others wounded in the explosion of two homemade bombs during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Damascus last month.
Explosive devices were placed in a garbage bin and a parked car. Syrian authorities arrested suspects days later, who they said were part of an Islamic State (IS) group cell.
Read moreWhy the Damascus blasts during Macron’s visit are a blow to al-Sharaa
Macron, who became the first head of state from the European Union to visit Syria since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024, was not present at his nearby hotel at the time.
A few days earlier, a bombing at a cafe in the capital's centre killed 10 people and wounded around 20.
The deadliest attack came in June 2025, when an attack on a Damascus church killed 25 people.
The suicide attack was later claimed by a Sunni Islamist group, while the authorities blamed it on the Islamic State group.
In a speech in December marking a year since the fall of Assad, al-Sharaa emphasised the importance of all Syrians unifying efforts to "to build a strong Syria".
Syria last year joined the US-led coalition against the IS group, a jihadist group that was largely wiped out in Iraq and Syria by 2019.
However the group retains sleeper cells and has called for attacks against authorities.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
