Islamic extremists blamed for Syria bombing

EXTREMISTS BLAMED: SANA said the bombing was a suicide attack by a 'terrorist'. (AFP)

A weekend bombing which left 17 people dead in the Syrian capital was a suicide attack by a "terrorist" with links to an Islamist extremist group, the official news agency SANA said on Monday.

"A preliminary inquiry has shown that the car which exploded Saturday came across a border post from a neighbouring Arab country and that the terrorist driving it blew himself up with the vehicle," the agency said.

A car packed with 200 kilos of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majid called "a terrorist act".

It was the deadliest attack in two decades in Syria, where security is run with an iron fist. The minister said all casualties were civilians.

The bombing came amid a flurry of diplomatic activity involving Syria.

It has launched indirect peace talks with archfoe Israel after an eight-year freeze, moved to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon and opened the door to improved relations with the West.

Syria has borders with Arab neighbours Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as Turkey and Israel.

In February, a top commander with the Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah, who was on Israeli and US most wanted lists for a string of attacks in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed in a Damascus car bombing.

In August, Syria confirmed the assassination of army general Mohammed Sleiman, described in Arab media as the regime's liaison with Hezbollah.

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