A source at Damascus Police Command said on Sunday that a mortar shell landed on the Opera House, claiming the lives of two citizens and injuring five others, in addition to causing material damage to the place.

The source added that two shells fell down in al-Ghassani neighborhood in al-Abbasiyeen area, injuring three citizens and damaging nine cars and a house.

Syria’s foreign-backed militants seeking to overthrow the Syrian government often fire mortar shells into the heart of Damascus from strongholds in outlying communities, but the fire has been more intense in recent weeks.

The heavier mortar fire is likely to be a response to pro-government forces advancing in militant-held areas around the capital and on the Lebanese border.

On Saturday, a mortar fire injured 22 people in Damascus.

The Opera House, officially called the Assad House for Culture and Arts, hosted a speech by President Bashar al-Assad last year in which he vowed to keep fighting to uproot terrorism in the war-torn country.

Syria has been the scene of deadly turmoil since March 2011. The crisis started as pro-reform protests but with interventions by the United States, UK and their regional and western allies it soon turned to a massive insurgency which took in numerous terrorist groups from all over Europe and the Middle East to wage one of the bloodiest wars the region has ever experienced.

Recent reports say over 150,000 people have so far died and millions of others displaced because of the foreign-backed violence.

NTJ/HH