2008 Damascus car bomb

2008 Damascus car bomb
Damascus highlighted within Syria
Location	Damascus, Syria
Date	September 27, 2008 8:45 a.m. (Local time)
Weapons	Car Bomb
Deaths	17
Non-fatal injuries	14
Suspected perpetrators	Fatah al-Islam

The 2008 Damascus car bombing is a car bombing that occurred on September 27, 2008 in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The explosion left 17 people dead and 14 injured. It was reported that a car, laden with 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of explosives detonated in the Sidi Kadad suburb of the capital, at approximately 8:45am. The blast occurred roughly 100 metres from a security installation on the road to Damascus International Airport at an intersection leading to the Sit Zeinab shrine, popular with Shia pilgrims from Iran and Lebanon. Security forces cordoned off the area.

It was the first major explosion in Syria since the car bomb assassination of Imad Mughniyah, a high-ranking military commander in Hezbollah in February 2008, and also the most lethal bomb attack in Syria since 1996. It was the deadliest since a spate of attacks in the 1980s blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood left nearly 150 dead.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Such attacks are rare in Syria and the blast is being seen as the worst threat to national security in many years.

The attack followed two politically motivated assassinations in Syria that occurred in 2008. The first took place when Hezbollah member Imad Moughniyah was killed by a car bomb in February, 2008. The second occurred only a month before the car bombing in Damascus, when General Mohammed Suleiman, a high-ranking aide to President Bashar Assad was killed in Tartous.

Syria also experienced riots at a prison near Damascus earlier in the year. These events were all highly irregular, as Syria maintains a generally well-held grip on internal security. The Damascus car bombing has contributed to public fear that internal instability or subterfuge may be fueling these unexpected events.