RABAT, Sept 27, 2008 (AFP) - Morocco's King Mohammed VI Saturday condemned the 'vile terrorist attack' in Damascus, where a car bombing killed 17 people.

The monarch said he had 'learnt with consternation and deep sorrow the news of the vile terrorist attack,' and expressed his 'firm condemnation' as well as his 'complete solidarity with the fraternal Syrian people at this difficult moment.'

Syrian authorities said earlier that a car bomb exploded near a Shiite shrine in south Damascus, killing 17 people and wounding 14 in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the country in more than a decade.

The car packed with 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds) of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majid described as 'a terrorist act.'

All the casualties were civilians, he told state television.