Deadly blast on military bus in Damascus

A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed at least 13 people on Oct. 20 in the bloodiest such attack in years, the SANA state news agency reported.

"A terrorist bombing using two explosive devices targeted a passing bus" at a key bridge in the capital, the news agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of 13 dead and three wounded.

Images released by SANA showed first responders searching the charred carcass of the bus and what the news agency said was a bomb squad defusing a third device planted in the same area.

Damascus had been mostly spared such violence in recent years, especially since troops and allied militia retook the last significant rebel bastion near the capital in 2018.

The attack is the deadliest in the capital since a bombing claimed by ISIL targeted the Justice Palace in March 2017, killing at least 30 people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing but most such attacks in the past were claimed by ISIL.

The latest bombing will challenge the government's assertion that the decade-old war is over and stability guaranteed for reconstruction efforts and investment projects to begin in earnest.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad has been striving to claw itself out of international isolation and had been making inroads in recent months.

The conflict that erupted with the brutal repression of unarmed protests demanding regime change in 2011 has left around half a million people dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It also led to the largest conflict-induced displacement since World War II, with half of Syria's pre-war population of 22 million forced to flee their homes at one point.

Assad's position was once held...