Syria says car used in blast from neighboring country

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-29 17:07

DAMASCUS -- The car used in a terrorist car bombing in Damascus that killed 17 civilians on Saturday was from a neighboring Arab country, the official SANA news agency reported on Monday.

A man cleans debris from his damaged shop after an explosion on the main road to the city's airport in Damascus September 27, 2008. [Agencies]

A preliminary investigation into the attack revealed that the car entered Syria from a neighboring Arab country on Friday, SANA said, without mentioning the name of the Arab neighbor.

Syria's Arab neighbors include Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.

The car, equipped with 200 kg of explosives, exploded on Saturday morning near the junction of Zeinab on the airport road in southern Damascus, killing at least 17 civilians and wounding 14 others.

"Investigations showed that a terrorist was driving the car and blew himself up and the car," SANA said, adding that process is underway to confirm the identity of the bomber through DNA tests of the remains of his body.

It said that the bomber had links to a terrorist group, members of which had been detained by Syria in the past.

The blast was the deadliest in Syria since 1986 when a series of coordinated attacks killed at least 144 people and injured another 149. In December 1996, 13 people were killed in a Damascus bus bombing.

It was the first explosion in the Syrian capital since February when Hezbollah leader Imad Moughniyah was killed in a car bombing in a residential neighborhood of Damascus.