Video: Damascus car bomb kills army liaison to Hezbollah

A car bomb in Damascus on Saturday killed a Syrian officer affiliated with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as reported by a war monitor. State media confirmed one fatality without naming the individual.

Despite over 12 years of civil war, bombings targeting military and civilian vehicles still occur sporadically in the Syrian capital.

According to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “A Syrian army officer who collaborated closely with Hezbollah died after an explosive device detonated in his car in Damascus.” The officer, originating from Deir Ezzor province, was responsible for recruiting Syrian fighters for Hezbollah, Abdel Rahman added.

The state news agency SANA mentioned, “One person was killed when an explosive device detonated in a car” in the Mazzeh district, a high-end area home to embassies and U.N. offices, without providing further details.

This incident occurs amid heightened regional tensions, with Israel engaged in a severe conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. Last month, a similar car bombing in Mazzeh caused no casualties.

Since Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 triggered the ongoing Gaza war, Hamas ally Hezbollah has engaged in almost daily exchanges of fire with the Israeli military.

Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Israel has conducted hundreds of air strikes targeting Hezbollah and other Iran-backed forces in Syria. The war has resulted in over 500,000 deaths and displaced millions.