BEIRUT — Syria's rebel commander says his forces carried out an attack in Damascus that killed the defense minister and other regime officials. But he denies it was a suicide bombing.

Riad al-Asaad said in a phone interview from his headquarters in Turkey that rebel forces planted a bomb inside a room where senior government officials were meeting Wednesday.

Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha and his deputy General Assef Shawkat, who also was President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, were killed.

The rebel leader denies government claims that it was a suicide attack, saying all those who carried out the operation are safe.

He said the attack marked "the beginning of the end of the regime."