Bomb attack on passenger bus in rural Damascus kills and wounds civilians

DAMASCUS, Syria — An explosive device planted on a passenger bus detonated while the vehicle was traveling in the rural outskirts of the Syrian capital, Syrian state television reported. The blast targeted a civilian bus moving through the countryside outside Damascus. Security forces were dispatched to the scene following the explosion, according to the report. Authorities said they were working to determine the identities and number of those killed and wounded. The rural Damascus area, a region that has shifted between different groups since the start of the Syrian civil war, has been the site of periodic bomb attacks. No group had claimed responsibility for the latest explosion as of publication, and an investigation was underway.