Several killed in Damascus car bomb

In north, Turkey returns artillery fire as Syrian shell lands across border

29 October 2012, 1:47 pm

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Firefighters extinguish fire at the scene after a bomb attached to a fuel truck exploded outside a Damascus hotel in August (illustrative photo credit: AP/SANA)

BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian government official says a car bomb in a Damascus suburb has killed 10 people.

The official said the blast on Monday in Jaramana also wounded 41 people and caused heavy damage. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The UN tried to broker a cease-fire over the four-day Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, which ends on Monday. But the truce collapsed almost immediately after it was supposed to take effect.

Also on Monday, Turkey’s state-run news agency says the country’s artillery has again responded to a stray shell fired from Syria that landed in Turkey.

The shell landed some 300 meters (yards) away from the Turkish border village of Besaslan on Monday. No one was injured but a power line was destroyed.

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The Anadolu agency said Turkey responded to the fire but did not provide details.

Ankara has been firing in retaliation to stray shells and mortars ever since a shell fired from Syria slammed into a Turkish border town, killing five civilians, on Oct. 3.

Syrian regime forces have been battling rebels near the town of Haram, in Syria’s Idlib province, across the border from Besaslan, despite a cease-fire that was supposed to halt fighting over a four-day Muslim holiday this weekend.