Syrian state media: explosive device blows up car in Damascus

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (AFP) - An explosive device went off in a car in an upscale neighbourhood of Damascus Saturday, Syrian state media said, quoting a police source and adding that there were no victims.

Security incidents, including blasts targeting military or civilian vehicles, occur intermittently in the capital. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blast or who was the target.

But it came with tensions high in the city after Iran vowed retaliation for an air strike it blamed on Israel.

The April 1 strike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing seven Revolutionary Guards, including two generals.

Syria's official SANA news agency, quoting a Damascus police command source, said an explosion "in the Mazzeh area resulted from an explosive device detonating in a car in al-Huda square".

It added that there were no casualties.

The city's Mazzeh district is where Iran's embassy and other foreign missions are located.

Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said without elaborating that the driver of the car was "a Lebanese national who has yet to be identified".

The Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria, said the authorities had cordoned off the scene of the explosion, and that the vehicle had been "slightly damaged".

Both Damascus and Tehran blame Israel for the April 1 raid on the consular building, but it has not commented.

The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has a significant presence in the Damascus region.

The strike came against the backdrop of Israel and Hamas's ongoing war, which began with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.