DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's Health Ministry said Friday that 14 people were wounded, three of them critically, but that there were no fatalities in the explosion of a minivan taxi a day earlier in a Damascus suburb.
The Health Ministry had said Thursday night that two people were killed in the blast. In a statement Friday, it said the fatalities had been incorrectly recorded based on three severed limbs that were pulled from the wreckage.
After further investigation, the limbs were determined to belong to living patients who were undergoing surgery, the statement said.
Officials said the explosion in Jaramana was caused by an explosive device planted in the minivan taxi, which was carrying passengers at the time of the blast.
A little-known group calling itself Minbar Ansar al-Rasoul issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. Syrian authorities have not announced any arrests or the results of their investigation into the bombing.
Jaramana, which is home to a large population of the Druze religious minority, has faced tensions between some members of the community and Sunni Muslim Syrians supportive of the country’s current Islamist-led government.
Tensions flared in April 2025, when at least 10 people were killed in sectarian clashes between Druze gunmen and pro-government fighters.
The apparent bombing attack, the third in just over a month, is the latest of several challenges that interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has faced since coming to power in December 2024 after leading an insurgency that overthrew the Assad dynasty and ended its half-century rule.
In early July, two explosions wounded at least 18 people during French President Emmanuel Macron’s landmark visit to Syria. Explosive devices were placed in a garbage bin and a parked car. Syrian authorities arrested suspects days later, who they said were part of an Islamic State cell.
Al-Sharaa has pushed to assert full control over Syria, appeal to minority groups skeptical of his Islamist-led rule and win the support of Western governments who were concerned about his past leadership of the formerly al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group. His government has promised political and economic reform after decades of autocratic rule under the Assad family.
Residents gather near the site of an explosion in the Jaramana suburb, home to a large Druze population, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
A man injured in a blast that Syrian state media said was caused by an explosive device planted in a minivan taxi in the Jaramana suburb, waits to be treated at Al-Mujtahid Hospital in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Syrian security personnel inspect damaged vehicles at the site of an explosion in the Jaramana suburb, home to a large Druze population, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulrahman Shaheen)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans were meeting for a second time Tuesday as they decide whether to delay elections for Republican leadership. South Dakota Sen. John Thune is seeking to keep his post as Republican leader just a week after steep losses in the midterm elections that cost them their majority.
Thune is expected to eventually win, given that he remains popular with his GOP colleagues and is so far running unopposed in the secret ballot election. But senators left the closed-door meeting after two hours of discussions Tuesday morning with no resolution on a way forward after an election wipeout that cost them at least seven Senate seats.
As they reconvened Tuesday afternoon, Republican senators were divided on whether a delay of anywhere from a week to a month would be productive. Votes were expected on whether to postpone.
“We want to be thoughtful and do the right thing,” said West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice as the meeting broke up. He said no obvious alternative had emerged, but “there is a legitimate argument that, good gracious, if we lost as badly as we lost, why would we continue on with the same leadership?"
At the same time, the current GOP leadership “didn't cause this problem to happen,” Justice said. “They do a good job."
The angst comes as frustrated Republicans are just beginning to reckon with what the election results mean for their future. Two additional Senate races remain uncalled in Alaska and Mississippi that could further deplete their numbers.
Several senators had already called on the Republican leadership to delay the elections, which include contests for other party leaders as well and are held in the small Old Senate Chamber.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said he isn't aware of anyone else running for leader, but “maybe there would be” if they waited.
“I just think that we’ve got a lot of things that we’ve got to think through, and I think that to just rush into this and just ratify all of the same leadership, what message does that send?" Hawley told reporters after walking out.
"If you don’t think after losing seven Senate seats minimum that we need to change course, I don’t know what planet you’re on,” he said.
Thune, who replaced Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as leader in early 2025, said before the meeting that they would have a “very fulsome, robust conversation about where we go from here and then we’ll see what the consensus of the conference is.”
Thune has not yet made his case for leadership, senators emerging from the meeting said, and has instead been listening to his colleagues' concerns. Hawley said the discussion was a “frank” and “honest” open- microphone meeting and some senators discussed their own races this year — some who won, and some who lost.
Republicans in the meeting were also pushing Thune to stay in session around the clock in the coming weeks to push through war spending and other party priorities before they lose power.
“We need a plan to get the Republican agenda done,” said Florida Sen. Rick Scott.
Before the meeting, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson had circulated a letter asking for the delay. He said the conference needs to do some “real soul-searching” but conceded that there's no one else on the ballot.
“That's part of our problem, who would want the job?” he said, turning to a reporter and joking, “Do you want it?”
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Lankford said that there is “widespread support” among Republican senators for Thune, who has made it a point to hear out different viewpoints before he makes major decisions and has maintained close relationships with the rank and file — a different approach from his predecessor, McConnell.
Lankford said he supported having the elections on Tuesday because many of the new GOP senators are already in town for freshman orientation.
“It’s a pretty complicated role to be able to manage,” Lankford said of Thune's leadership post. “No one wants that job.”
Walking into the meeting, South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said most senators are ready to move forward. It is time to have “leadership in place,” he said.
Thune has spent much of the last two years navigating President Donald Trump, who has often been at odds with the Senate.
While backing up Trump on most policy, Thune has refused to change Senate rules and scrap the filibuster to pass voting legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters — a position that frustrated Trump and enraged some in the president's political base.
But Trump hosted Thune and his family at the White House in October. He said Monday that the GOP leader is “a very fine man.” The election is “up to the Senate,” Trump said.
The soul-searching comes as lawmakers are trying to wrap up the year’s work — funding the government and seeing if there are some issues where they can work together, including an energy permitting bill that moved forward on a bipartisan vote Monday evening.
When he gets the chance to speak at the meeting, Thune is expected to emphasize his collaborative approach to his colleagues and point out what they did get done in the last year — including the tax and spending cuts legislation and an attempt at reining in the chaotic annual spending process.
In a Senate floor speech Monday, his first extended remarks since the election, Thune said the midterm election was a “tough night” and previewed his pitch to his colleagues who may be looking for answers on how they will navigate the minority.
Republicans will be willing to work with Democrats, Thune said, but “the American people are not looking for socialist government and leftist fantasies.”
Across the aisle, Democrats who could hold as many as 56 seats next year are having private discussions about whether New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is still the right person to lead them.
Schumer has found critics on the left and the right of his caucus as candidates from both sides declined to say in the campaign whether they would support him as leader. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin have both considered challenging Schumer, but neither has announced a run.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Schumer’s New York colleague and the head of the Democratic Senate campaign arm, predicted that he will win enough support. Schumer not only won the Senate back but he “cares deeply, and he understands politics well," she said.
Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks to reporters as members of the Republican Conference arrive to elect their leadership following the sweeping victory by Democrats in the midterm elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and members of the Republican Conference arrive to elect their leadership following the sweeping victory by Democrats in the midterm elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and members of the Republican Conference arrive to elect their leadership following the sweeping victory by Democrats in the midterm elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The Supreme Court is seen through a car window that is reflecting the U.S. Capitol dome, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., center, poses for a photograph in his office with Sen.-elects Abdul El-Sayed, D-Mich., Josh Turek, D-Iowa, Roy Cooper, D-N.C., Juliana Stratton, D-Ill., and Chris Pappas, D-N.H., Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., heads to an intelligence briefing in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol with the director of national intelligence and other congressional leaders, as Congress returns to work following the midterm elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
