(AhlulBayt News Agency) - A Syrian general and eight other soldiers were killed late Tuesday in a tunnel bomb outside Damascus, a monitoring group said.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said terrorists planted explosives in a tunnel in the town of Harasta, northeast of Damascus.
"The explosion killed a Syrian officer at the rank of general, and eight other members of regime forces, and wounded several people," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The blast hit Harasta´s department of motor vehicles, where the group had been meeting.
"The building collapsed and there are still 15 people who are unaccounted for," Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that the death toll was likely to rise as some of the wounded were in critical condition.
Harasta lies in Eastern Ghouta, a region east of Damascus that has long been a stronghold for terrorists including the Jaish al-Islam.
But government forces have made a major push in the area in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, Syrian fighters seized a dozen farm fields from terrorists in Eastern Ghouta and launched rockets into Harasta.
Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored militancy over the past almost six years. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated in August last year that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the Syrian crisis until then. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.
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18 January 2017 - 13:17
News ID: 805691
A Syrian general and eight other soldiers were killed late Tuesday in a tunnel bomb outside Damascus, a monitoring group said.
