DAMASCUS, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- An armed militant group assassinated four Syrian nuclear power engineers in an ambush near the capital Damascus, a pro-government paper said Monday.

The armed group on Sunday ambushed a bus carrying the engineers while en route to their work at the Scientific Research Center in the Damascus' neighborhood of Barzeh, said the report.

It said the attach took place on the road between the Damascus suburbs of Tal and Barzeh, citing sources as speculating that the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front may have been behind the incident.

The paper didn't specify whether the attack was carried out by an explosive device or shooting.

The oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the assassination, saying however that the attack killed five engineers and that the assailants shot dead all of the bus passengers.

In July 2013, six people working at the same center were killed in a mortar attack carried out by anti-government militants.