Rif Dimashq clashes

A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed at least 13 people on Oct. 20 in the bloodiest such attack in years, the SANA state news agency reported.

"A terrorist bombing using two explosive devices targeted a passing bus" at a key bridge in the capital, the news agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of 13 dead and three wounded.

A "huge explosion" near a military intelligence office in Damascus on Jan. 20 left a number of dead and wounded, a war monitor said, after state TV reported early indications suggested a "terrorist act".

Syrian air defences engaged an "enemy target" near the border with Lebanon west of Damascus overnight, state news agency SANA reported on Saturday.

The perpetrators of a chemical weapons attack carried out on the Syrian suburb of Douma on April 7 should be punished to prevent such an attack happening again, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hami Aksoy has urged.

Rockets fired on a market in a government-controlled neighborhood of Damascus on March 20 killed 35 people and wounded more than 20 others, Syrian state-run media said, marking one of the highest death tolls in a single attack targeting the capital.

The Syrian Arab army is advancing in several directions in the controlled by extremists region - Eastern Ghouta, the France press reports. This was stated by a senior Syrian soldier before the state agency SANA on Sunday.

Syria’s army has broken the siege of an army base encircled by opposition forces on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, state television and a war monitor reported on Jan. 7.

A suicide car bomber pursued by security forces blew himself up in eastern Damascus on July 2, with a monitor reporting 18 killed in the deadliest attack to hit the Syrian capital in months.

Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said security forces intercepted three car bombers on their way into the city early on July 2.

Syrian rebels and their families began leaving a northern district of the capital on Monday, state television said, in the first evacuations from Damascus in the country's six-year war, reported AFP.

"Armed men and some of their families have begun leaving Barzeh on 40 buses heading towards northern Syria," the station said in a news alert.

A dozen Syrian rebel factions have suspended talks on new peace negotiations in the Kazakh capital of Astana, accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime of violating a four-day-old cease-fire with attacks near Damascus that continued on Jan. 3.