Damascus suburb 'car bomb kills 15'

A car bomb exploded near a mosque in the southern outskirts of Damascus, killing 15 people, state media reported on Sunday. "An explosives-laden Suzuki vehicle, parked by an armed terrorist group near the Muaz Bin Jabal mosque, exploded on Saturday evening in the Sbeneh area of Damascus province," the state-owned Tishrin newspaper reported, adding that the blast struck close to a Palestinian refugee camp. "The intensity of the explosion cut the bodies of the martyrs into pieces," the paper quoted a security official it did not identify as saying. "The blast also damaged the homes and property of people living nearby." Located on the extreme southern edge of the capital, Sbeneh is a poor neighbourhood where anti-government sentiment is strong. Hundreds of families have sought shelter in the district since fierce fighting broke out in Damascus in July, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A car bomb in the southeast Damascus suburb of Jaramana on August 28 killed at least 27 people, the Observatory said.