Damascus bomb kills at least 15, groups say

[NewsCaster]

By NBC News staff and wire servicesUpdated at 6:45 p.m. ET: Explosions hit the Hai al-Wuroud district in northwest Damascus on Tuesday, killing at least 15, Syrian state media and regime foes reported. Also Tuesday, gunmen shot dead the brother of the parliament speaker in the latest rebel attack on a figure associated with the ruling elite.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the violence, said at least 40 were wounded in the attack that used three bombs.


Hai al-Wuroud, a hilltop neighborhood inhabited mostly by members of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, is situated near barracks and housing for elite army units.An opposition group and an activist organization say that 269 people have died in a rash of violence since Sunday. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

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