Suicide Bombers Target Police Station in Damascus

At least 17 people were killed in a suicide attack that targeted a police station in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, the Associated Press reported.

Citing Syria’s interior minister, the AP said two suicide bombers stormed a police station in the al-Midan neighborhood. The first suicide bomber blew himself up and the second was killed by police, causing his bomb to explode.

However, Reuters, also citing Syria’s interior minister, said that the first suicide bomber had detonated the explosive at the main entrance while the second blew himself up on the first floor.

The U.K.-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that a car bomb also went off near the police station before the two suicide bombers detonated their explosive belts. However, Syria’s interior minister did not mention any explosive-rigged vehicles.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide attack – the first of its kind in the capital since July. But it comes at a time when pro-government forces are clashing with rebels in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, the last opposition enclave around Assad’s seat of power.

Last week, the Failaq al-Rahman Corps, a rebel group, detonated explosives in buildings used by pro-government forces in the suburbs of the capital, killing at least 52 of the troops.

Strike Kills Hezbollah Fighters in East Syria

An unidentified warplane carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah positions in eastern Syria, killing at least seven of the group’s fighters, Reuters reported on Monday.

The blast targeted Hezbollah in eastern Homs province, where it is supporting the Syrian government in the fight against the so-called Islamic State in the area.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition ruled out the possibility that Washington was behind the strike, telling Reuters that the location was outside the coalition’s area of operations. Unnamed sources told Reuters there was a possibility that Russian “friendly fire” was behind the attack.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense also told Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper on Monday that “the DoD did not strike Hezbollah today.”

Citing the SOHR, the AP said that an unmanned drone was responsible for the attack on Monday morning. It also said that at least 10 Hezbollah fighters were killed.

Jordan Denies Deportation of Syrian Refugees

Jordan on Monday denied claims by Human Rights Watch that it was summarily deporting hundreds of registered Syrian refugees, Asharq al-Awsat reported.

“The return of the Syrian refugees is voluntary and in such cases, the return is to areas where there is no threat or danger to their lives,” said Mohammad Momani, Jordan’s minister of state for media affairs.

A 27-page HRW report released on Monday accused the Jordanian government of deporting 400 Syrian refugees a month since the beginning of 2017.

“Jordan shouldn’t be sending people back to Syria without making sure they wouldn’t face a real risk of torture or serious harm and unless they have had a fair opportunity to plead their case for protection,” Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at HRW, said.

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