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Damascus: An Islamist suicide bomber was responsible for a car bomb on Saturday that killed 17 people in Syria, the state news agency reported on Monday.
The Sana news agency said the vehicle entered Syria from a neighbouring Arab country on September 26. It did not say which country. Syria's Arab neighbours are Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.
A Syrian army officer was among those killed by the blast, which struck on a main road near a state security complex and an intersection leading to a shrine that is a site of pilgrimage for Shiites.
Brigadier General George Gharbi and his son, also killed by the bombing, had been driving through the area at the time of the attack, relatives of the men said.
Sana said the bomber was linked to an Islamist group, members of which had previously been detained. It did not name the group, which it described as a "takfir organisation".
"Takfir" is an Arabic word meaning to charge another Muslim with non-belief.
Sana said the bomber had been driving a four-wheel drive vehicle. "Investigations showed that a terrorist was driving the car and blew himself up and the car. Confirmation of his identity is underway via a DNA examination of the remains of his corpse," Sana said.
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