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 DAMASCUS — A powerful bomb rocked central Damascus on Tuesday, killing 13 people according to Syrian TV, and sowing fear and chaos in a busy commercial district of the capital for the second consecutive day.
The Syrian prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on Monday after a car bomb struck near his convoy, a few kilometers (miles) away from Tuesday's blast.
“I heard a very loud bang and then the ceiling collapsed on top of me,” said Zaher Nafeq, who owns a mobile phone shop in the Damascus Towers, a 28-floor office building, The Associated Press reported.
Nafeq was wounded in his hand and his mobile phone shop was badly damaged in the blast.
Syrian TV said Tuesday's explosion was caused by a “terrorist bombing” in the district of Marjeh, a commercial area in central Damascus.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which the TV said also wounded 70 people. Car bombs and suicide attacks targeting the Damascus and other cities have been claimed in the past by the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra group, which is fighting in Syria alongside rebels to destabilize Syria and topple President Basher al-Assad.
Damascus residents said they heard a powerful explosion and saw thick, black smoke billowing from behind a group of buildings.
The target of the attack was not immediately clear, although the explosion took place outside the former Interior Ministry building that was also damaged in the blast.
Ambulances rushed to the scene and Syrian state TV aired footage of fire trucks in central Marjeh Square and firefighters trying to extinguish a blaze that engulfed several cars and buildings.
A man was seen lying on the ground in a pool of blood while another, apparently wounded, was seen being carried by civilians into a bus.
Inspecting the site of the bombing on Tuesday, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, who himself escaped a car bomb that targeted his convoy in December, told reporters the back-to-back attacks in the capital were in response to the “victories and achievements scored by the Syrian Arab Army on the ground against terrorism.”
45,000 refugees return to Syria
Jordan says that more 45,000 refugees in its territory who fled Syria's unrest have chosen to return since last August.
Col. Zaher Abu Shihab, who directs Jordan's largest refugee camp at Zaatari near the two countries' border, says 45,865 Syrian refugees have so far been voluntarily repatriated.
Some refugees have complained of the harsh environment at the camp. Sporadic protests have demanded improvements.
About 300 to 400 Syria refugees ask daily to go back to Syria, Abu Shihab told the official Petra news agency late Monday.
Jordan hosts more than half a million displaced Syrians, with about one-fifth inside Zaatari.
Abu Shihab said the camp intends to improve conditions, installing more trailers to replace tents to house the refugees.
More than 1.4 million Syrian refugees have fled their shattered homeland for neighboring countries whose health care systems are straining to meet the needs of their populations, in some cases suddenly swollen by 20 percent.
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
In an interview recently broadcast on Turkish television, Assad said that if the militants take power in Syria, they could destabilize the entire Middle East region for decades.
“If the unrest in Syria leads to the partitioning of the country, or if the terrorist forces take control… the situation will inevitably spill over into neighboring countries and create a domino effect throughout the Middle East and beyond,” he added.
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