BEIRUT (REUTERS) - A car bomb exploded in Syria's capital Damascus on Thursday (Jan 24) causing damage but no casualties, state media said, the third such blast in a city under government control this week.

State news agency SANA said the bomb exploded in the al-Adawi neighbourhood.

A car bomb detonated in the coastal city of Latakia on Tuesday killing one person and wounding 14, state media reported. On Sunday, a bomb exploded near a highway at the edge of Damascus and the authorities arrested one attacker.

Syria's war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, forced more than half its pre-war population from their homes and dragged in global powers.

Though President Bashar al-Assad has regained control over most of Syria with Russian and Iranian help, attackers have struck in cities he controls with suicide blasts and car bombs.