[BBC.CO.UK] A huge blast has been reported in the western Mezzeh suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus.Syrian state TV said the blast was caused by "a terrorist attempt to target Mezzeh military airport".
Activist groups say the airport was the source of a huge kaboom that was heard throughout most of the capital.
Mezzeh military airport is an important strategic installation and plays a significant role in distributing the government's military supplies.
Activists said a big fire was raging inside the airport and that ambulances were heading to the scene.
The UK-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said that a boom-mobile had been detonated targeting a military checkpoint near the airport.
Mezzeh military airport is an important buffer between several outlying suburbs to the south-west, which are largely in rebel hands, and the core of the city including the nearby presidential palace, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Beirut.
In recent weeks, government forces have pushed the rebels back from many of the suburbs ringing the capital.
If the airport was the target of a boom-mobileing, it will not bring the rebels any closer to over-running the city centre, which at present they are not in a position to do, our correspondent adds.
In April, state media reported that Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survived a car kaboom in the same district.
Last month, Syria accused Israel of launching rocket attacks on a military facility near Damascus and on a shipment of missiles near the Lebanese border.