Syria's Health Ministry corrects Damascus minibus blast toll: 14 wounded, no deaths

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.