Car Bomb Explosion Leaves Dozens Hurt in Eastern Damascus

Dozens of people were injured this morning when a car bomb detonated in a popular market in the Syrian town of Douma, northeast of the capital Damascus.

Videos uploaded to YouTube show billowing black smoke rising from the burning shell of an overturned vehicle while witnesses carry the injured, among them children, away from the scene.

Nearby, the shattered fronts of buildings on both sides loom over the wreck, raining debris onto the street below.

An unknown number also died in the attack, according to the activist group the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR).

SOHR says the death toll of the Syrian conflict has surpassed 160,000 since early 2011 — a number that is not independently verifiable.

The United Nations said in January it had stopped registering its own Syrian death figures at 100,000, as it could not confirm its sources.

There were no immediate reports from Syria state media today's incident.