Car Bomb Blast Kills 5 near Syrian Capital

Syrian state media say a car bomb blast in a government-held area outside the capital Damascus has killed at least five people and wounded 15 others.

The incident occurred near Sasa, southwest of the capital.

The al-Qaida linked Fatah al-Sham Front claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast coincides with a fragile, nationwide cease-fire brokered in late December by Syrian government ally Russia and Turkey. That truce excluded jihadists from Islamic State and the al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham, known previously as al-Nusra Front.

On Saturday, a huge explosion ripped through the center of a rebel-held border town in northern Syria, killing more than 40 people, many of them civilians displaced by months of conflict that devastated large parts of the nearby city of Aleppo.

Monitors said the blast, most likely from a tanker truck bomb, was detonated in the town of Azaz, outside a courthouse and security offices staffed by opposition fighters seeking to topple the Damascus government. A nearby marketplace lay in ruins.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack.