Suicide bomb kills 25 in justice ministry in Damascus

A heavily armed man wearing an army uniform detonated his explosive vest inside the Justice Ministry in the Syrian capital Damascus Wednesday, killing at least 25 people, according to Syrian state media.
Damascus police chief Mohammad Kheir Ismail told Syrian state TV that the attacker, wearing a military uniform and carrying a shotgun and grenades, tried to force his way into the palace around 1:20 p.m.
The guards stopped the man, took away his arms and asked to search him. At that point, the attacker threw himself inside the building and detonated his suicide vest, the chief said.
"This is a dirty action as people who enter the palace are innocent,” Syria’s attorney general, Ahma "d al-Sayed, told state TV. He said the attack was timed to kill the largest number of lawyers,



judges and other people who work or visit the Judicial Palace, which is near Damascus' popular and crowded Hamidiyeh market.

The blast follows a pair of attacks on Saturday that killed at least 40 people in the Syrian capital. That attack was claimed by the Syria’s al-Qaeda branch, formerly known as the Nusra Front, that is fighting the government of Syrian president Bashar Assad. No group claimed responsibility immediately for Wednesday's attack.
It came as Syrians mark the sixth anniversary of the country’s bitter civil war, which has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions of others. The conflict began in March 2011 as a popular uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule but quickly descended into a full-blown civil war. The chaos allowed al-Qaeda and later the Islamic State group to gain a foothold in the war-torn nation.