Syria state media: Four dead in suicide attack at government office

The bomber detonated explosive belt at Defense Ministry office in central Damascus.

Free Syrian Army fighters in Mleha suburb of Damascus 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)
Free Syrian Army fighters in Mleha suburb of Damascus 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)
BEIRUT - A suicide bomb attack at a Syrian defense ministry office in central Damascus killed at least four people on Tuesday, state media and a monitoring group said.
The bomber detonated himself using an explosive belt at the office in the Jisr al-Abyad area in the capital's center, news agency SANA reported.
At least four people were killed and 17 wounded in the attack, state television said.
Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the office was used by relatives of deceased soldiers for paperwork and was not a military site.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which started in March 2011 as a peaceful protest movement and descended into civil war after a government crackdown.
President Bashar Assad's forces have stayed in control of central Damascus and most of Syria's major cities and towns, although rebels have managed to carry out bomb and rocket attacks in the capital's heart.