Syria Reports Car Bombing Near Defense Ministry and Security Detentions

A car bomb exploded near a Ministry of Defense building in central Damascus’s Bab Sharqi area on May 19. One Syrian soldier was killed and 23 civilians were wounded, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. Security forces were dismantling a second improvised explosive device when the car bomb detonated.

Syrian authorities have not released additional details about the incident since May 19.

On the same day, Syrian security forces detained two people wanted for unspecified attacks in a rural part of Deir Ez Zor Governorate, Syria’s North Press Agency reported. Kurdish families who fled the Afrin region in 2018 have begun returning home.

A convoy carrying 623 displaced families returned from the Kurdish town of Kobane to Afrin on May 19, the Rudaw Media Network reported. Five previous convoys had already brought more than 2,400 families back from Hasaka and Qamishli. Ilham Ahmad, a Kurdish official involved with the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, was present during the return.

The returns coincide with ongoing integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces into government security structures.

Khattab hosted Kurdish members of women’s SDF units on May 21 to discuss security coordination under a January 29 agreement. Damascus is also moving to appoint representatives from eastern Syria to the country’s electoral college. Syria sent a Ministry of Defense delegation to attend the EFES 2026 military exercises in Turkey on May 21.

Syria will attend the G7 summit in France in mid-June as a guest nation, represented by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Reuters reported. Syrian media reported Israeli forces conducted operations near villages in southern Quneitra countryside on May 21. Syria’s government has generally downplayed these incidents.