The Latest: Islamic State group claims Damascus bombing
By Associated Press
Feb 9, 2016 8:12 AM CST
In this photo provided by Turkish Islamic aid group IHH, displaced Syrians walk among a temporary refugee camp in northern Syria, near Bab al-Salameh border crossing with Turkey, Monday, Feb. 8, 2016. Turkey was under pressure from the EU to open its border to up to 35,000 Syrians who have massed along...   (Associated Press)

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest developments on the war in Syria and the tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing violence (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing near a police officers' club in the Syrian capital, Damascus that killed at least 10 people.

In a statement circulated on Twitter by several accounts affiliated with the group, IS says Tuesday's attack was carried out by a fighter known as Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Shami. It vows more attacks.

Syrian state TV says the bombing killed at least 10 people, and showed footage of damaged vehicles and a burnt-out car.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that tracks both sides of the conflict, says the blast killed eight policemen and wounded 20.

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2 p.m.

The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people in Syria's largest city could be soon cut off from humanitarian aid amid blistering Syrian and Russian airstrikes and is calling on Turkish authorities to open the border to help those fleeing the violence.

The U.N. humanitarian office OCHA says 300,000 people could be cut off from aid if the Syrian government and allied forces encircle Aleppo and deprive those fleeing from their last way out. Laying out contingency plans, OCHA said local leaders believe up to 150,000 people could try to flee to nearby Afrin and the surrounding countryside.

The refugee agency UNHCR also called on Turkey to open its borders to allow in people who have already fled Aleppo and who have gathered by the thousands near the Syrian-Turkish border.

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1:50 p.m.

Turkey's prime minister is calling on the international community to speak out against Russia for "mercilessly bombing civilian targets" in Syria.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also says Tuesday that Russia will eventually retreat from Syria in "embarrassment" — in a similar manner to the Soviet forces who once left Afghanistan.

Davutoglu was speaking to legislators of his ruling party as tens of thousands of Syrians who fled a Russian-backed Syrian onslaught around the city of Aleppo massed at the border with Turkey.

Turkey is already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Davutoglu insisted that Turkey has not shut its borders to refugees even though it has not let in the new wave of arrivals. A senior government official said Turkey would care for the Syrians within their borders "as much as possible."

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11:05 p.m.

Syrian state media says a car bomb has exploded near a police officers' club in the Syrian capital of Damascus, wounding at least eight people.

The SANA news agency says the blast went off near a vegetable market in the northern neighborhood of Masaken Barzeh. State TV said the blast occurred near a police officers' club, inflicting casualties.

The opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, said the blast killed eight policemen and wounded 20 after it was detonated in the parking lot of the officers' club.

Such attacks are not uncommon in the Syrian capital, the seat of power of President Bashar Assad.

The blast came a day after an international rights group said Syrian government forces and the Russian military have been carrying out daily cluster bomb attacks over the past two weeks in Syria, killing 37 people. The Human Rights Watch report said that cluster munitions, which are widely banned, have been used in at least 14 attacks across five provinces since Jan. 26.

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