July 9 (Reuters) - Preliminary investigations into the cell responsible for Tuesday's bombings in Damascus have shown it was affiliated with Islamic State, a senior Syrian security official said on Thursday.• "We were able to track down one member of the cell responsible for the July 7 Damascus bombings, and by monitoring him we identified the rest of the group's members," Ahmad al-Dalati, head of internal security in the Damascus countryside, told Syrian state-run Ekhbariya TV.• Interior Minister Anas Khattab said earlier on Thursday that authorities would reveal the identities of the cell's members, their roles and all their links after investigations were completed.• Two bombs exploded on Tuesday near a hotel in Damascus where French President Emmanuel Macron spent the night, wounding 18 people and overshadowing the first visit to Syria by a European Union head of state since Bashar al-Assad was toppled. (Reporting by Enas Alashray; Editing by Mark Porter and Jamie Freed)
Syria says preliminary probe links Damascus bomb cell to Islamic State
July 9 (Reuters) - Preliminary investigations into the cell responsible for Tuesday's bombings in Damascus have shown it was affiliated with Islamic State, a senior Syrian security official said on Thursday.• "We were able to track down one member of the cell responsible for the July 7 Damascus bombings, and by monitoring him we identified the rest of the group's members," Ahmad al-Dalati, head of internal security in the Damascus countryside, told Syrian state-run Ekhbariya TV.
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