Updated July 02, 2017 23:21:45

Photo: State TV said the death toll had been minimised as the attackers did not reach their intended targets. (AP/SANA)

Three car bombs have exploded in the Syrian capital of Damascus, state media reported, killing at least eight people and wounding 12 in one of the blasts.

The Interior Ministry said security forces tracked three cars loaded with explosives as they headed toward central Damascus.

Two of the cars were intercepted at checkpoints on the airport road and detonated, apparently in controlled explosions.

The third made it into the city centre, where the driver blew himself up near Tahrir Square.

Photo: Syrian government forces are currently battling insurgents in areas on the capital's eastern outskirts. (AP/SANA)

Syrian state television said at least eight people were killed and 12 wounded in the attack.

However, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, put the death toll from the explosions at 12, including three attackers.

Minister of Local Administration Hussein Makhlouf said the response from authorities marked a "major success in foiling a plot" to cause mass casualties.

State TV showed footage of two scorched vehicles on the airport road, as well as footage from Tahreer Square showing a damaged building and mangled cars at the small roundabout.

Attacks come days before Russian-sponsored talks

Photo: Buildings at the scene of the explosion were blown open by the blast. (AP/SANA)

The explosions came on the first full work day after the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and was the biggest attack in the city since a series of suicide attacks in March.

In March, two suicide bomb attacks in Damascus claimed by the Islamic State group killed several dozen people, most of them at the Palace of Justice courthouse near the Old City.

Also in March, a double suicide attack in the capital killed scores of people, most of them Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims.

That attack was claimed by the Tahrir al-Sham alliance of Islamist insurgents, which is spearheaded by a jihadist group formerly known as the Nusra Front.

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But such attacks have been relatively rare in Damascus, the seat of power for President Bashar al-Assad, who made a series of public appearances last week in a show of increased confidence after more than six years of battling a rebellion.

Pro-government forces have engaged in heavy fighting in the city's suburbs during the war, but have largely kept the rebels out of the city centre.

In recent days, Syrian troops and allied forces have been fighting to drive the rebels out of Ain Terma and Jobar, adjacent areas on the city's eastern outskirts that have been under rebel control since 2011.

The attacks came days before Russian-sponsored talks are to resume in the Kazakh capital, Astana, where the two sides agreed to a cease-fire earlier this year — which has been repeatedly violated.

The new round of talks is expected to delineate "de-escalation zones".

Russian officials said the talks are also to discuss the formation of a Syrian national reconciliation committee.

Reuters/AP

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, community-and-society, syrian-arab-republic

First posted July 02, 2017 18:53:06