ISLAMIC STATE (Isis) claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed at least 10 people in the Syrian capital Damascus yesterday.

The blast hit the Police Club, where officers’ families were staying, in the Masaken Barzeh district, on a busy street close to a fruit and vegetable market.

Isis claimed the bombing in a statement circulated by its followers on Twitter, saying it was carried out by a terrorist known as Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Shami.

The Syrian cabinet condemned the bombing, with Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi saying that terrorists were resorting to “cowardly” acts in response to the recent spate of defeats at the hands of the army.

In recent days the army has been steadily advancing against Isis in the south-east of Homs province, capturing hilltops around the strategic city of Quraytayn.

The gains have tightened the noose on opposition forces occupying the city since last August.

Yesterday the so-called Rebel Justice Council in Idlib province — under occupation by the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front — threatened to execute anyone smuggling supplies in to the besieged towns of Fu’ah and Kafarya.

The United Nations urged Turkey to open its borders to refugees fleeing Nusra’s Azaz supply corridor in the north of Aleppo province, as the army and Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) advanced from the south and west.

Syrian and Russian planes continued blitzing the Nusra and allied groups’ positions in Anadan and Kafr Hamra, north of the city of Aleppo in preparation for an offensive to cut off insurgents in the east of the city.

Anti-government fighters were desperately counterattacking at Handarat, the YPG-held suburb of Sheikh Masoud and Khan Touman yesterday, and claimed to have recaptured Tannurah, south of Zahraa, where the army lifted a three-year siege last week.

• Iraqi troops have completely liberated the major city of Ramadi from Isis, the Ministry of the Interior announced yesterday.

The ministry said troops backed by people’s militias had driven the last of the Wahhabi zealots from the city’s suburbs.