Calay News
The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group claimed responsibility for the explosive attack on a police station in the Syrian capital, which left one officer dead and four agents injured. In a statement released on its Telegram channels, the group said its members had “managed to place and detonate an explosive device in a vehicle inside a police station.”
The Syrian Ministry of Interior had earlier reported that a vehicle exploded inside a police station in the Barzeh district, causing the death of a police lieutenant colonel and leaving four officers injured. The ministry said an investigation was ongoing to determine the circumstances of the incident.
This attack is one of the few claimed by jihadists in the Syrian capital in recent years. In Damascus, explosions of military or civilian vehicles have been reported, but their origin has not yet been determined. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based NGO, these are believed to be revenge attacks.
Syria has been embroiled in a civil war that began with the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011. The conflict has evolved into a complex one that has become a battleground for numerous foreign powers, including Russia and Iran, allies of the Assad government, as well as rebel groups and jihadist organizations. In the midst of the chaos, the IS group established a stronghold, which it called a “caliphate,” that extended over large swathes of territory in Syria and neighboring Iraq. However, the group lost control of its territories in eastern Syria at the beginning of 2019.
Although the fighting has subsided in recent years, there are still large areas in northern Syria that remain outside government control.
