(CNN) — A day after attackers bombed a pro-government TV station, massive explosions shook the heart of Damascus near the Justice Ministry, state-run media said.
Two blasts occurred in a parking lot Thursday outside the Palace of Justice, which houses the ministry, Syrian state TV said. The Local Coordination Committees of Syria confirmed the blast and said it occurred in the Marja neighborhood of central Damascus.
At least three people were injured, and 20 cars were damaged, state TV said.
Video showed heavy smoke rising above buildings in Damascus. Firefighters battled a blaze at the site of the explosion.
On Wednesday, bombers killed at least seven people in the headquarters of the al-Ikhbaria television station near Damascus, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported. Three journalists and four security guards died, and the attackers ransacked and destroyed studios, the news outlet said.
There has been a flurry of attacks in Syria’s major cities of Damascus and Aleppo in recent months, strikes that opposition groups have said the government has orchestrated to discredit anti-regime forces.
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has blamed the attacks on terrorists.
“Terrorist operations of this nature could not be implemented without adequate financing and support in terms of providing money, weapons or persons or through media and political coverage,” Bashar Jaafari, Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday.
“It is indeed regrettable that some Arab and regional states, as well as others, do provide these facilities to armed terrorist groups in order to undertake terrorist actions in my country.”
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