Roadside bomb hits bus in Syria, wounding 16

Attack occurred in southern Deraa governorate on the border with Jordan

Syrian soldiers patrol at a checkpoint in the southern city of Deraa. AFP

Sixteen people were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Deraa governorate, Syrian state media reported on Monday.

The attack reportedly occurred on a bridge at the Nasib border crossing with Jordan and was carried out against customs officials.

“Sixteen employees of the joint Syrian-Jordanian duty free zone were injured after terrorists planted an explosive device near the bus they were on,” state news agency Sana said.

The attack took place “near the Saida bridge on the Damascus-Amman highway”, Sana said.

Originally one of the first governorates to rise up against the rule of President Bashar Al Assad in 2011, Deraa was the site of heavy fighting during the conflict.

A series of deals between the Syrian government and rebel groups led to many fighters and their families moving to the north of the country, but a simmering insurgency remains, particularly in rural parts of the governorate.

ISIS — whose third leader was killed in the area in October — sometimes claims responsibility for attacks in the region.

The governorate is significantly more secure than the north of the country. Idlib governorate, which is under the control of a group formerly linked to Al Qaeda, still experiences sporadic violence and government shelling.

Monday's attack comes one day after a rare car bombing rocked the capital Damascus, with no deaths reported and no group claiming responsibility.

On January 30, a bomb attack on a bus carrying Syrian police wounded 15 officers in Deraa province.

The Syrian war broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful anti-government protests, and escalated into a deadly armed conflict that pulled in foreign powers and global terror groups.

More than half a million people have been killed and about half of Syria's prewar population has been forced from their homes.