The explosion comes as an Israeli drone attack reportedly targeted a car and truck near Syria’s border with Lebanon.
A car explosion killed one person in the Syrian capital Damascus, Syrian news agency SANA reported, without identifying the victim.
“One person died when an explosive device exploded in his car in Mezze district,” a police official was quoted as saying by SANA.
The Mezze neighborhood in Damascus is home to the Iranian consulate, destroyed last month in an attack blamed on Israel. The attack at the time killed seven people, including two Iranian generals and a member of the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, and triggered a direct Iranian military attack on Israel for the first time, raising fears of war across the region.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the UK-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said the man killed in the blast was a resident of Mezze who was carrying a card identifying him as an officer of the Syrian army. Abdurrahman said the dead man had close ties to Iran.
Security incidents, including explosions targeting military and civilian vehicles, occur intermittently in Syria’s war-torn capital.
The explosion occurs in a context of heightened regional tensions, including Israel’s war in Gaza.
Hours after the explosion in Damascus, an Israeli drone strike reportedly targeted a car and a truck on the outskirts of the western Syrian city of Qusayr, northwest of Damascus, near the border with Lebanon, the Observatory and a radio station reported. pan-Arab TV company based in Beirut.
“An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the city of Qusayr in Homs province as they headed to al-Dabaa military airport, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and wounding others,” it said. the Syrian Observatory. .
Last month, an explosive device exploded in a car in Mezz, causing no casualties, SANA reported at the time.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the start of the war in 2011, targeting Iranian-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions.
Attacks have increased since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, which followed an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel.
The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 after Damascus cracked down on anti-government protests.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has received strong support from Iran, which, along with support from Russia, has allowed his government to turn the tide against the opposition, despite international and regional opposition to his government and widespread abuses. of human rights.
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