DAMASCUS (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.
It said the bomber had links to a "Takfiri" group, referring to Islamist extremists, adding that Syria had arrested a number of its members in the past.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing, a rare event in a country where security is run with an iron fist.
A car packed with 200 kilos (440 pounds) 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."
The attack was the deadliest in two decades in Syria and the minister said all casualties were civilians. Syrian television showed damage to buildings and to vehicles in the wake of the bombing.
SANA said the vehicle entered Syria on Friday and investigators are in the process of determining the identity of the bomber through DNA tests. The hunt is continuing for suspects at large, the agency said.
Analysts said on Sunday that the attack could have been aimed at splitting Syria's alliance with Iran or deterring it from becoming too friendly with the West.
The bombing came amid a flurry of diplomatic activity involving Damascus.
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 Shiite 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 July, the authorities put down a rebellion in Saydnaya prison, one of Syria's largest, accusing inmates jailed for crimes of "terrorism and extremism" of having orchestrated the violence, which left 25 dead according to rights groups.
The following month, Syria confirmed the assassination of general Mohammed Sleiman, described in Arab media as the regime's liaison with Hezbollah.
Takfiris are hardline Islamists who condone violence against Muslims who do not share their rigid beliefs.
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