The explosion comes as an Israeli drone strike reportedly targeted a car and truck near Syria's border with Lebanon.
A car explosion killed one person in Damascus, the Syrian capital, the Syrian news agency SANA reported, without identifying the victim.
“A person died when an explosive device exploded in his car in the Mezze district,” said a police official quoted by SANA.
The Mezze neighborhood of Damascus is home to the Iranian consulate, destroyed last month in an attack attributed to Israel. The attack at the time killed seven people, including two Iranian generals and a member of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, and triggered a direct Iranian military attack on Israel for the first time, raising fears of war across the region.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the opposition war, said the man killed in the explosion was a resident of Mezze who was carrying a card identifying him as a Syrian army officer. Abdurrahman said the dead man had close ties to Iran.
Security incidents, including explosions targeting military and civilian vehicles, occur intermittently in Syria's war-torn capital.
The explosion comes against a backdrop of escalating regional tensions, including Israel's war on Gaza.
Hours after the explosion in Damascus, an Israeli drone strike reportedly targeted a car and a truck on the outskirts of the western Syrian city of Qusayr, northwest of Damascus, near the Lebanese border. The Observatory and a Beirut-based pan-Arab television station reported.
“An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, as they were en route to al-Dabaa military airport, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and wounding others. “said the Syrian Observatory. .
Last month, an explosive device exploded in a car in Mezz, without causing any casualties, SANA reported at the time.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the war broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian-backed forces, including Hezbollah, as well as Syrian army positions.
Attacks have increased since Israel's war on Gaza began on October 7, following an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel.
The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it broke out in 2011, after Damascus cracked down on anti-government protests.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has received strong backing from Iran, which, along with support from Russia, allowed his government to change course against the opposition, despite international and regional opposition to his government and the widespread human rights abuses.
