A suicide car bomber struck near a police officers’ club in Damascus Tuesday, killing a number of people and leaving others injured; Islamic State (IS) militants have claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on violence in the country’s civil war, stated that eight police officers were killed and that at least 20 people were wounded in the attack.
Security forces at the heavily-guarded site prevented the suicide bomber from entering the complex, Syria’s interior ministry said. The bomb, then, detonated at the club’s gates.
After the attack, IS released a statement via social media that claimed responsibility. Circulated by its followers, the statement named the suicide bomber as Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Shami and warned of more incidents to come.
The last major blast in the Syrian capital occurred on January 31 in a district where the country’s holiest Shi’ite Muslim shrine is located. In the attack, also claimed by the Islamic State, more than 70 people were killed, including 25 Shi’ite militiamen.
The Islamic State wrote in its statement that the bomber had turned his enemies’ “tranquility into horror,” fighting to avenge the suffering of his fellow Sunni Muslims.
