Syrian Defense Minister Daoud Abdullah Rajiha and Assef Shawkat, President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, have been killed in an apparent suicide attack on a key security building in Damascus on Wednesday, Syrian and Lebanese media reported.
Later on Wednesday explosions were reported near the base of the Fourth Armoured Division, headed by Assad's brother Maher, but these were denied by the government.
"A suicide attack has targeted the National Security building," Syrian state TV said of the security apparatus headed by Hisham Bekhtiar.
"The terrorist explosion which targeted the national security building in Damascus occurred during a meeting of ministers and a number of heads of (security) agencies," the network reported.
The attack occurred as several ministers were meeting security officials, Syrian state TV said.
Lebanon's Al-Manar television said Shawkat, Deputy Defense Minister, also died in the blast, the first family member of the president to have been killed since the uprising began 16 months ago.
Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar was also wounded in the blast, but is currently in a stable condition, Syrian TV reported.
Bekhtiar, the head of national security, was critically wounded and has gone into surgery, Syrian TV added.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that all members of the crisis meeting, which included security officials, were all seriously wounded.
Security officials told AFP that several other participants in the meeting were wounded in the blast and taken to Al-Shami hospital in the capital for treatment.
The circumstances of the blast are still unclear. Reuters reported that the suicide bomber worked as a bodyguard for Assad's inner circle.
AFP reported that a man in the meeting room detonated an explosive belt. A political source in Damascus, wishing to remain anonymous, told Al-Akhbar that the blast was detonated inside the building.
A Syrian rebel Islamist group called Liwa al-Islam claimed responsibility for the attacks, Reuters reported.
The building is a heavily guarded headquarters in the city's central Rawda district...
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