2 car bombs kill 2 in Syria, activists report violence

DAMASCUS, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two explosive-laden vehicles went off Saturday respectively in Damascus and eastern Deir al-Zour province, killing at least two people, as activists report intense violence around the capital and elsewhere.

An explosive device affixed under a car went off Saturday in front of the Ibn al-Nafis hospital in Rukin Addien district in Damascus, killing one Syrian officer who had been working at the hospital, sources said.

The sources' account could not be checked independently due to the absence of official comments, but several officers have been targeted over the past few months, and some of them had been killed while others were kidnapped.

In Deir al-Zour, one person was killed and two children were injured when a suicide car bomb exploded Saturday in the restive province, pro-government al-Ekhbaria TV said, giving no further details.

Meanwhile, the state-TV said an army unit clashed Saturday morning with an armed "terrorist" cell that was trying to get into the restive Damascus' suburb of Daraya, adding that the army has killed and injured a large number of its members.

The TV reported that clashes also took place in the district of Barza in Damascus earlier Saturday, noting that the government troops have inflicted heavy tolls on the opposition fighters.

In a separate account, activists reported clashes and shelling in a number of suburbs around the capital, mainly in the districts of al-Hajar al-Aswad and al-Tadamun, where four children were killed by the shelling.

The activists' network, the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), claimed that as many as 32 people have so far been killed Saturday, 15 of whom were killed in Damascus.

It said two young men were killed in Harem area of the northwestern province of Idlib due to the intense clashes between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels and the government troops.

The LCC said a young man was also killed in the Damascus' suburb of Harasta in an operation carried out by the FSA.

It said the rebel-held al-Rastan area in central Homs province have been under shelling from the government troops since the early hours of Saturday.

Meanwhile, the LCC reported that chaotic events in a number of restive areas across Syria Saturday, however, their report could not be checked on the ground. Enditem