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Dozens killed in bombing at Damascus court complex

By Allen Cone
Security personnel stand near a blood stain at the Justice Palace following a suicide bombing in the Hamidiya district of Damascus, Syria on Wednesday. According to state-media reports, a suicide bomber attacked the Palace of Justice in the Hamidiya district of Damascus, killing dozens of people. Photo by Youssef Badawi/EPA
Security personnel stand near a blood stain at the Justice Palace following a suicide bombing in the Hamidiya district of Damascus, Syria on Wednesday. According to state-media reports, a suicide bomber attacked the Palace of Justice in the Hamidiya district of Damascus, killing dozens of people. Photo by Youssef Badawi/EPA

March 15 (UPI) -- At least 31 people died in a suicide bomb attack at Damascus' main court complex, Syria's state media reported Wednesday.

A person wearing an explosive vest carried out the attack at the old Justice Palace building in the al-Hamidiyeh area, a local police source told Sana news agency. Also, several other civilians were injured, the agency reported.

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The palace is near Hamidiyeh market in the center of the capital.

Another suicide bomber about 1.2 miles away later attacked a restaurant in the western district of Rabweh. Police said 28 people were injured, most of them children and women, Sana reported. No fatalities were reported.

Al Jazeera reported the suicide bomber in the first detonated his explosives after being stopped by security at the courthouse gate during a peak time.

Damascus police chief Mohammed Kheir Ismail told state TV the bomber was wearing a military uniform, and he carried a shotgun and grenades.

The bombings occurred on the sixth anniversary of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks.

On Saturday, Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group, said it was behind twin suicide bombings elsewhere in the capital that killed at least 40 people, including Shiite Muslim pilgrims from Iraq visiting an ancient cemetery near the Old City.

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