Killed in Damascus Court Bombing

“A terrorist blows himself up inside the old palace of justice in Damascus and there are dead and wounded”, state television said in a breaking news alert.

Fatah Al Sham had earlier claimed responsibility for twin bombings that killed 74 people in Damascus on Saturday, majority Iraqi pilgrims visiting Shiite shrines in the Syrian capital.

A Damascus Police source told SANA the initial death toll is said to be 25, with a number of people injured.

No one claimed responsibility in the attack.

The explosion happened when a suicide bomber detonated his bomb vest inside the Justice Palace, or the Courthouse, in central Damascus.

The source added that the terrorist bombing claimed the lives of a number of civilians and injured numerous citizens who were at the building.

Damascus has been a target of attacks in the past.

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011, with Assad’s government now holding the upper hand in the bloody war and rebel forces increasingly divided and dispirited.

The civil war has killed about 400,000 people, wounded more than a million and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of about 22 million.

Meanwhile, these bombings also give credits to the government priority of fighting the terror-designated groups. The Palace of Justice is located some few meters from the historical district in Damascus and in the vicinity of the large market in Hamidiyeh, usually full of people at noon in Syria.

NPR’s Alison Meuse, reporting from Beirut, says the judicial building is where people gather to wait for news about loved ones detained in Syrian prisons.

The guards stopped the man and asked to search him.

Ikhbariyeh TV said the attacker was chased by security guards, before rushing inside the restaurant and detonating an explosive vest.

Skeif said that besides the lawyers, other civilians lost their lives in the blast.