Most of them are unsigned... the most prominent bombings in Syria since the outbreak of the war

14 soldiers of the Syrian regime forces were killed and 3 others were injured in the explosion of two explosive devices, which targeted -Wednesday, October 20, 2021- their bus at the President Bridge in the center of the capital, Damascus.

Wednesday's bloody bombing is not the first of its kind targeting Damascus, but was preceded by dozens of bombings that struck the capital and other provinces since the outbreak of the Syrian war more than 10 years ago.

Double bombings and car bombs

- December 2011: A double bombing in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood, west of the Syrian capital, killed 44 people, followed by a bombing in the Al-Midan neighborhood in Damascus, which also killed 26 people.

January 6, 2012: A booby-trapped attack in Damascus killed at least 26 people, in addition to injuring 46, most of them civilians.

February 2012: Another double bombing in Aleppo killed 28 people. Meanwhile, similar but less bloody attacks took place in Daraa and Idlib.

- March 17, 2012: Al-Nusra Front claimed an attack with car bombs on security installations in Damascus, killing 27 people.

May 2012: A double bombing in Damascus killed 55 people and wounded hundreds.

- July 18, 2012: It is the bombing of the Syrian National Security Building, known as the bombing of the Crisis Cell, and perhaps the most famous bombing in the Syrian revolution, as it resulted in the killing of the Minister of Defense and some of the main security leaders in the regime, and there was confusion about the person responsible for it, until the regime accused itself implement it.

- March 21, 2013: Sheikh Muhammad Saeed Ramadan Al-Bouti (84 years old) was assassinated by a suicide bombing at Al-Iman Mosque in Al-Mazraa neighborhood in Damascus.

The bombing killed about 50 people, including the grandson of Sheikh al-Bouti, and wounded dozens, most of whom were students of knowledge who were attending a religious lesson for the Sheikh in the mosque.

- According to eyewitnesses' testimonies, another explosive device was discovered in front of the mosque, and it is assumed that it was targeting al-Bouti as well, in case the suicide bombing did not succeed in killing him.

- April 29, 2013: The Syrian official media announced that Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi had survived an explosion targeting his convoy in the Mazzeh neighborhood of the capital, Damascus, killing 6 people and wounding others.

- Sources of the Syrian revolution questioned the official story, and alluded to its orchestration by the regime, whose forces continue to clash with the Free Syrian Army in Damascus and its countryside.

ISIS.. the finger of blame

- February 21, 2014: 40 people were killed and more than 200 others were injured, 20 of whom were described as serious, in a car bomb explosion that rocked a refugee camp next to the Bab al-Salama crossing between Turkey and Syria.

Activists reported that the car bomb belonged to the Islamic State, and it detonated among the crowds of displaced people.

- April 2015: A number of leaders of the so-called “Syrian Front” opposition and an emir in Jabhat al-Nusra were killed in Marea city, as a result of car bomb attacks claimed by ISIS, which was controlling parts of the northern and eastern Aleppo countryside at the time.

August 8, 2015: 11 Syrian opposition members were killed when a fighter from the same organization blew up one of its headquarters in the village of Umm Hosh, south of Marea, in the northern countryside of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey.

An ISIS element detonated a car bomb at the headquarters in the village of Umm Hosh, south of Marea, and two ISIS fighters blew themselves up near another opposition headquarters in the same town, but no casualties were reported in these two explosions.

- January 26, 2016: Al-Zahra neighborhood - loyal to the regime, which is described as one of its fortresses inside Homs - was hit by two car bombs, coinciding with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura calling for the Syrian opposition and the regime to participate in the Geneva talks.

January 31, 2016: In conjunction with the arrival of the Syrian opposition delegation to Geneva, two car bombs exploded in the town of Sayeda Zeinab, which is considered a military barracks for Iran and its loyal militias in Damascus countryside.

The bombings of Sayyida Zainab at the time coincided with a press conference for the head of the Syrian regime delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari, which began with a torrent of accusations and blaming the opposition for these bombings.

- February 21, 2016: A series of simultaneous explosions rocked Sixty Street in Al-Zahraa neighborhood in Homs, and Al-Teen and Al-Fatimiah streets in the town of Sayeda Zainab in the Damascus countryside, leaving dozens dead and wounded, and ISIS claimed it in a written statement.

- February 4, 2017: A Russian military truck loaded with ammunition exploded on the coastal road of Jableh Baniyas in Lattakia Governorate (western Syria).

The accident was a bombing of a Russian military vehicle that killed 5 members, but the Russian Defense Ministry denied the killing of its soldiers in the explosion, saying that it occurred as a result of a technical malfunction.

March 2017: A bloody bombing in the Syrian capital targeted the Justice Palace, killing more than 30 people, and was claimed by the Islamic State.

- 2018: The explosions in Damascus have subsided since the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with military assistance from Russia and Iran, took control of opposition pockets in the vicinity of Damascus, especially Eastern Ghouta.

- November 19, 2019: The sounds of explosions were heard near the capital, Damascus International Airport, and there were no additional details about the source of those explosions, but the Russian “Sputnik” news agency quoted its correspondent as saying that the Syrian air defenses shot down a number of missiles, likely to be Israeli, in The vicinity of Damascus Airport.

Kurdish People's Protection Units

- April 28, 2020: 42 civilians - including women and children - were killed and dozens were wounded, some of them seriously, when a booby-trapped fuel tanker exploded in a popular market in the center of Afrin (northern Syria), which was a stronghold of Kurdish units.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense accused the Kurdish People's Protection Units of responsibility for the bombing, and the ministry also broadcast a video clip showing black smoke rising in the air.

- July 18, 2020: Two explosions in Damascus killed one person and wounded another.

- July 26, 2020: 5 civilians were killed and 17 others were injured in an explosion targeting a vegetable market in the city of Ras al-Ain in the Hasaka countryside in northern Syria, which is under the control of the opposition.

The bombing took place by a motorcycle bomb, and also caused significant material damage to the market, as the security forces in the area pointed the finger at the organization of the Kurdish People's Protection Units of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which had previously carried out similar bombings in Ras al-Ain and other areas of northern Syria.

- August 2020: A Russian general was killed and two soldiers were wounded in an explosive device explosion as their car passed near Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria.

The Grand Mufti of Damascus..a victim of the bombings

- End of October 2020: An explosion targeted the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing the Grand Mufti of Damascus, Sheikh Adnan Afiouni.

January 1, 2021: A Russian military base in northeastern Syria was subjected to an unprecedented attack, which was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Guardians of Religion Organization.

The bombing was followed by shooting at the base located in the northern countryside of Raqqa, which is under the control of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the Kurdish People’s Protection Units are the main component. It took place after targeting the Russian point in Tal al-Saman with a car bomb.

- June 9, 2021: A Russian soldier was killed and 3 others were injured as a result of the targeting of a Russian military police patrol with a car bomb in the Syrian province of Hasaka, where Russia deploys thousands of soldiers to support the forces affiliated with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The accident was caused by the explosion of a mine in a Russian armored vehicle in the Darbasiyah area in Hasaka governorate, within the areas under the control of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces.

- August 4, 2021: An explosion occurred on board a military overnight bus in the capital, Damascus, at the entrance to the "Guard Residence" near the Dummar project.

The data confirmed that the explosion was caused by an electrical short-circuit that caused the bus’s fuel tank to explode and ignite, killing the bus driver and wounding 3 others who were taken to the hospital.

- October 20, 2021: 14 soldiers of the Syrian regime forces were killed and 3 others were wounded in the explosion of two explosive devices targeting their bus at the President Bridge in the center of the capital, Damascus.

A military source stated that the two explosive devices were previously attached to the bus, and the official Syrian News Agency reported that the military engineering units dismantled a third device planted in the place.

No party has claimed responsibility for the bombing. Pictures from the scene of the accident showed that the bus was completely burnt, and a number of cars were damaged in the targeted place, and rescue workers retrieved the body parts of the dead.