2008 Damascus car bombing
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The 2008 Damascus car bombing was a car bombing that occurred on 27 September 2008 in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The explosion left 17 people dead and 14 injured.[3] A car, laden with 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of explosives detonated in the Sidi Kadad suburb of the capital, at approximately 8:45am.[4][5] The blast occurred roughly 100 metres from a security installation on the road to Damascus International Airport at an intersection leading to the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque, popular with Shia pilgrims from Iran and Lebanon. Security forces cordoned off the area.[6][7]
2008 Damascus car bomb | |
---|---|
Location | Damascus, Syria |
Date | 27 September 2008 8:45 a.m.[1] (Local time) |
Weapons | Car Bomb |
Deaths | 17[1] |
Injured | 14[2] |
It was the first major explosion in Syria since the car bomb assassination of Imad Mughniyah, a high-ranking military commander in Hezbollah in February 2008,[8] and also the most lethal bomb attack in Syria since 1996.[9] It was the deadliest since a spate of attacks in the 1980s blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood left nearly 150 dead.[10]
No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.[11]
At the time, such attacks were rare in Syria and the blast was seen as the worst threat to national security in many years.[12]