A car bomb rocked a busy residential and commercial district in central Damascus on Monday, killing at least 15 people and sending a huge cloud of black smoke billowing over the capital’s skyline, Syrian state-run media said.
Shaken teenage students holding their backpacks were seen walking away. The blast occurred some 20 meters (yards) from the Bukhari School.
The two-year civil war has killed more than 70,000 people, and has become increasingly dangerous as rebels move in closer to Assad’s seat of power in Damascus. Rebels have seized large areas in northern and eastern parts of the country.