27 Killed, 140 Wounded in Damascus Blasts
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Two huge bomb blasts killed at least 27 people in Syria's capital on Saturday, sparking anger at Riyadh and Doha, as special envoy Kofi Annan warned of regional fallout from the year-long bloodshed.
State television said the early morning "terrorist" attacks, apparently car bombings timed minutes apart, had targeted police headquarters in the Duwar al-Jamarek area and air force intelligence offices in al-Qasaa district.
The explosions killed 27 people, mainly civilians, and wounded 140 civilians and security personnel, the interior ministry said.
Three people had been reduced to "body parts" by the force of the blast, it added.
As angry residents vented their fury at Arab supporters of anti-regime activists, the state broadcaster ran footage of a charred body inside the mangled remains of a smoldering vehicle in Duwar al-Jamarek.
The other blast totally gutted the facade of a multi-storey building, also destroying several cars. The channel broadcast images of wrecked apartments and blood-splattered streets.
From Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said: "France condemns all acts of terrorism, which cannot be justified under any circumstances." France has been at the forefront of calls for Assad to quit.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr affirmed Cairo's "fixed position against terrorism in any form, regardless of the reasons behind it."
The continuing bloodshed confirmed the need to start implementing the Arab League initiative, he added.
Bombings have hit Syria's major cities in recent months provoking mounting concern that al-Qaida has taken advantage of the uprising against President Bashar Assad.
Syria's opposition however has accused the regime of having stage-managed the attacks.
Commentators on state television blamed Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the fiercest Arab critics of Assad over his regime's deadly crackdown on dissent since March 2011. Both countries have called for rebels to be armed.
"Saudi Arabia is sending us terrorists," a resident of the devastated areas said on television.
"These are the friends... of the Istanbul council," said another of the opposition Syrian National Council set up in the Turkish city last August.
On Friday, U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Annan warned of a regional "escalation" of the Syria conflict and urged the U.N. Security Council to close ranks to put pressure on Assad.
The former United Nations chief, who met Assad in Damascus last weekend, has ordered a team of U.N. experts to Syria to discuss a possible ceasefire and international monitoring mission, his spokesman said.
Russian and China have twice used their veto powers as permanent members to block Security Council resolutions on the Syrian crisis that they said were unbalanced.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday he had spoken to Annan shortly after his talks with Assad and had been told that the strongman's resignation was not under discussion.
Annan himself told the Security Council he had had a "disappointing" response from Assad so far to his proposals.
Syria's foreign ministry said the country would cooperate with Annan and at the same time pursue its crackdown on "armed terrorist gangs," which it blames for the bloodshed.
Thousands of anti-government protesters called on Friday for foreign military intervention as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 18 people were killed nationwide.
A large crowd also took part in a rare demonstration in al-Raqqa in northeast Syria, as seen in a video posted on the Internet by activists.
The Britain-based Observatory said funerals were held on Saturday for two people killed during the al-Raqqa protest and security forces opened fire on mourners, killing another two people.
Huge rallies in support of Assad were held in Damascus and other major cities on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the uprising that monitors say has cost more than 9,100 lives in 12 months.
Apart from Annan's technical team, the U.N. and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are to send experts to Damascus on a Syrian government-led humanitarian mission to protest cities devastated in shelling by security forces.
The team members will head to Damascus from New York and Geneva on Monday, Annan's spokesman said.
17 March 2012, 10:39
63
This will be the new democracy in Syria. Replacing oppression with explosions.
17 March 2012, 11:26
00
Actually it is just a continuation of the oppression, explosions have noting to do with freedom...we all saw the staging of the crime scenes by the TV reporters and we all read the emails by Iran/Hizbollah spokesman the head of AlAlam TV telling ASSad who to blame for the bombings...we all know that the regime is behind all these bombings in order to try and stop the revolution...
17 March 2012, 10:46
00
These ambiguous bombings does not help the Syrian national resistance, a movement that condemns the killing of it's civilians does not do the same! We all know what the Baath regime is capable of, it is not the first and will not be the last crime against humanity, we suffered and witnessed their style in Lebanon, and hence, lost thousands of Lebanese martyrs as a result of their ruthless styles.
17 March 2012, 11:54
44
I hope he steps down, too bad for the innocent victims in the crossfire, the fighters I could care less.
17 March 2012, 14:30
00
So it was OK when the terrorist shabiha AKA Syrian Mukhabarat were blowing up car bombs in Beirut but it's not OK when it's in Damascus. The chickens have come home to roust loverboy. Now go get yourself a room with your love where you can fornicate in private and get off this place..
17 March 2012, 13:02
00
At least these terrorists are targeting military institution, unlike the ones Bashar was sending to Iraq who targeted Markets, Mosques, Churches...
17 March 2012, 15:18
00
It is heating up in Damascus now, the end is near, and now he faces the final curtain, they did it their way...
17 March 2012, 15:23
05
This is the result of the West's failure to act. The situation in Syria has become so desperate that now the radical car bombers have come into the picture to fill the void of organized disiplined military opposition to Assad.
The thing that the Obama Administration feared by engaging the Syrian Uprising, is happening precisely because he has failed to act.
This is not the act of the FSA, or the Syrian Opposition, but of interlopers taking advantage of the indecision.
17 March 2012, 16:24
02
To Beiruti
Before blaming the west - the Syrian opposition should takle their own failures
Why after a year of up-rising, they have failed to say a significant portion of the Sunni population (mostly moderates living in Damascus & Halab) as well as the majority of the Alawites, Christians, Druze and Kurds to join their cause.
The oppostion must have made contact with them already - yet they failed to sway them. Why? Is it because, like some are saying, the oppostion is indeed a Muslim Brotherhood movement seeking to replace Assad regime with an Islamic State under Shariaa Law? which doesn't please moderate Sunnis or the minorities in Syria.
If the Oppostion fail to address that, they will plunge Syria in a bloody civil war, even if Assad is overthrouwn.
17 March 2012, 16:32
12
Do you really believe Saudi Arabia, Qatar or other gulf emirs, are eager to help the Syrian attain true democracy – with free election, freedom of speech, civil rights, and equality among men & women??? Do you really believe that Saudi support that? Knowing that if such a thing where to happen, it won’t be long that their own people will then seek to overthrow them to attain it too.
17 March 2012, 16:32
22
No, what Saudi Royal family, and gulf Emirs are doing is ensuring that Arab uprisings popping up around them are pushed away from democracy, and toward Islamic state in tune with Saudi Arabia's nature.
17 March 2012, 16:34
22
Therefore the Saudi are helping Islamists in those nations by helping them organize, fund medical – educational institutions and now even arming rebels. Saudi Arabia’s effort to tilt democratic uprising into Islamic ones, can best be seen in action in Egypt – where the Saudi inspired/supported Salafist Nour party made surprising gains in Egyptian elections.
17 March 2012, 17:47
01
this is a normal continuation of the war: the syrian people has no other alternative as they cannot sustain a war with the assad army. it is sad, but nothing else is expected.
17 March 2012, 19:27
00
This is how the syrian regime manipulated Lebanon when they were here. They used to put bombs here and there and accuse the parties so that they could remain here for ever. They are now replicating this in syria and blaming the free army for it. This will not work. The free army has become more than 60,000 in number and once properly armed and with the morals they have they will subjugate the syrian regime sooner or later.
17 March 2012, 19:57
11
I blame the West for not engaging the SNC and thereby making it a more effective vessel for the Syrian Opposition. It is Syria's struggle at the end of the dY, but they have been repressed for so long that they lack organizational skills and tools. This is what the West has to give and it is what we are withholding, while we use the disorganized state of the opposition as an excuse for doing nothing.
How soon we forget in the US that but for the French, Prussians and Poles, the fledgling American Revolutionaries would have failed for lack of organization.
18 March 2012, 00:50
00
Let's see how the Assad militia will perform once the oppositions also are armed. No fun when they start to shoot back.
