Though the explosion took place close to the hotel, it wasn’t clear what the target had been. The area is home to a Syrian army officers’ club and a construction belonging to the ruling Baath Party. It’s also not far from the army command. Assad’s troops set in motion a counter-offensive last month against confrontation forces who arrogated several districts of Damascus and swaddles of the country’s largest city, Aleppo
A bomb blew up in central Damascus on Wednesday close to several military constructions and a hotel housing UN observers, hurting 3 people and sending a pillar of black smoke into the sky above the Syrian capital.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told none of the United Nations monitors was wounded in the explosion, which came about exactly 4 weeks after a bomb killed 4 of President Bashar al-Assad’s top security officials.
“This is another criminal operation which demonstrates the [extent of the] attack which Syria has been exposed to and the criminal and barbaric nature of those who execute these attacks — and their backers in Syria and abroad,” Mekdad told reporters at the scene where firefighters were dipping a smoldering fuel tanker.
The bomb, in a car park behind the hotel, blasted open the fuel truck when it exploded at 8.30 am (0530 GMT). A row of white United Nations vehicles parked nearby was covered in ash and dust.
