On Thursday, an explosive device struck a military bus carrying Assad’s forces in the suburb of Qudssaya in the countryside of the Syrian capital Damascus. No one has claimed responsibility for the operation so far.
Local networks and Facebook pages including Bareen al-Hadath and Qudssaya Suburb said that unknown attackers had used an explosive device to target an overnight bus affiliated with the Republican Guard, wounding some, but not causing any fatalities.
Meanwhile the regime news agency SANA published a report saying that the driver and a soldier were wounded, and that they were transported to the hospital for treatment.
Qudssaya, in the western Damascus countryside, has seen a number of explosions over 2019, but this was the first time they targeted the Republican Guard barracks, which is a security area inhabited by officers in Assad’s forces and surrounded by military sectors.
The head of the Qudssaya city council, Nabil Mohamed Deeb Rizmeh, was killed in August when a planted explosive hit his car, killing him without perpetrators being identified.
The head of the al-Haram Center for Financial Exchanges in Qudssaya was killed in July during an armed robbery of the center, amid reports of a first lieutenant in Assad’s forces being involved in the robbery.
An explosive went off in April inside a car in Qudssaya, wounding the driver severely and inflicting damage to buildings in the area. At the time the blast was claimed by a new formation calling itself the Qassioun Companies, saying it targeted an official in the regime’s Military Security.
Qudssaya had been under Syrian opposition control but at the end of 2015, Assad’s forces took control of it after an expulsion agreement, which called for rebels to be removed to Idleb and the city handed over to the regime.
The city has seen a security breakdown despite enjoying a special security status because it includes a large number of Republican Guard military checkpoints and officers barracks.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
