Multiple blasts, mortar rounds hit Damascus

A car bomb and two booby-trap explosions have hit Syria’s capital Damascus, killing at least 19 people and injuring a dozen others. Syria’s state television reported on Sunday that a car bomb had gone off at the Bilal Mosque near the capital’s Tahrir Square. It said security forces had chased two other explosives-laden vehicles and detonated their explosives before they reached their targets. Two booby-traps were also set off near the city’s al-Baitarah Square and Shuhada’ School. A mortar round further landed in the area between the al-Saadat and Bab al-Salam neighborhoods, while several others hit the Bab Touma Borough and Baghdad Square at the capital’s al-Qadir Square.