At least 18 people were killed and 15 others wounded on Sunday in a suicide bombing in an eastern district of Damascus, AFP reported quoting Syrian state television. Security forces intercepted two suicide car bombers on Sunday morning, who blew up their vehicles at the entrance of the city, but the third bomber was able to enter Damascus and detonate the bomb.

Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a senior police official as saying that “terrorists simultaneously blew up three cars”. Two were blown up on the road to Damascus airport southeast of the Capital and a third in the eastern Sahat Al-Tahrir district.

Sahat Al-Tahrir resident Mohammad Tinawi said he had heard gunfire around 8.30 am IST and then an explosion that “broke the glass windows of the neighbourhood”. He also said he saw two Red Crescent volunteers helping wounded soldiers, besies two burned-out cars and damage to a security checkpoint.

Dozens of people have been killed in bombings, particularly on the outskirts of Damascus, in 2017. In March, bomb attacks by the Islamic State group on a courthouse and restaurant in Damascus killed at least 25 people. The strike came days after two explosions targeting Shia pilgrims left 40 dead in the Capital’s Old City.