A mortar shell hit the Iraqi consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, Sept 26, killing an Iraqi woman and wounding four other people, witnesses said, according to Reuters.

State news agency SANA quoted a source at the consulate as saying the shell had also damaged the building.

It was not clear whether the consulate - which is located in the upscale al-Maliki neighborhood near the United States and Chinese embassies - had been deliberately targeted.

A guard at the consulate said he was on duty when the woman was killed. "I helped carry her to the ambulance. She was limp and covered with a coat," he said.

Rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad have clung to a crescent of territories around the capital for about a year and a half, and have launched several mortar and rocket attacks into the city center in recent months.

A car bomb killed at least seven civilians on Tuesday when it exploded in a southern Damascus neighborhood. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 15 people had also been injured in the blast, which hit the district of Tadamon, where President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been fighting rebels for months.The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of activists across Syria, said the blast had destroyed several buildings.

A mortar shell landed in the Russian embassy compound in central Damascus on Sunday, wounding three people.