Judge Tarek Bitar, who is investigating the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion asked security forces on Friday to implement an arrest warrant he issued two months ago for former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil charged over the blast. 

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Bitar asked security forces, via the public prosecutor's office, to implement the warrant against Khalil, else they themselves be prosecuted for defying judicial orders, a senior judicial source told Reuters.

A number of current and former senior politicians and security officials have been charged in connection with the blast that killed more than 215 people, but have refused to be interrogated by Bitar, saying he lacks the authority to do so and is biased.

His probe has repeatedly been stalled by lawsuits filed by suspects seeking his removal. It resumed this week after being suspended for more than a month.

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Several buildings collapsed as a result of the blast which shook the city in Idlib province, near a road between the coastal city of Latakia and city of Aleppo.

The city has been a target of bombardment by the Russian air force and the Syrian army in recent weeks. Most of its inhabitants have fled to the safety of areas close to the Turkish border, residents and local officials say.

In a separate incident, Syrian state-run media reported a bomb had killed a civilian and wounded five other people in a Damascus neighborhood.

The official SANA news agency says the bomb had been placed in a car in the Nahr Aysheh district in southern Damascus and killed the driver when it detonated. The agency says an investigation is underway.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

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