Twenty-four people were killed Wednesday in a bus bombing in Damascus, Syria, and a later retaliation by the Syrian government.
A group called Qasioun Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombings in the capital city, saying the explosives were attached under the bus before they went off, The Associated Press reported. The group, according to the wire service, is not widely known.
The bombs detonated at a busy city intersection and killed 14 people while injuring others.
The group said the attack was revenge for the “massacres committed against our people in the liberated north,” adding that the attacks would continue, according a statement posted on social media.
The attack jolted the area that has been relatively attack-free since troops were sent to the region by Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2018 to get opposition fighters out from around Damascus.
Assad, with support from Russia and Iran, has been able to get control of much of Syria, according to the AP.
In response to the bus attacks, government shells were sent to a town controlled by the rebels that killed 10 people, including four children and their teacher.
“Today’s violence is yet another reminder that the war in Syria has not come to an end. Civilians, among them many children, keep bearing the brunt of a brutal decade-long conflict,” UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, said in a statement.
The Syrian Civil Defense said at least 20 more were wounded in the town.
Troops from the U.S. and Turkey have been in the northern part of Syria with the rebels, the AP noted.