Security Council Condemns Damascus Bomb Attacks

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday condemned the deadliest bomb attacks of Syria's 14-month uprising, urging all sides to stick to an international peace plan after at least 55 people were killed.

The Syrian government and opposition traded the blame for Thursday's twin suicide bomb attacks in Damascus, which also left nearly 400 people wounded in horrific scenes of carnage.

The blasts during the morning rush hour further clouded a U.N.-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan that has failed to take hold since it went into effect on April 12.

Syrian state television aired gruesome footage of the aftermath of the twin explosions in the neighborhood of Qazzaz, blaming rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad's embattled regime.

Russia and China, which have stymied Western efforts to heap stronger condemnation on Assad's government, joined in a U.N. Security Council denunciation of the attacks.

The 15 Security Council members "condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks" in the Syrian capital, according to a statement.

The council called on all sides to "immediately and comprehensively" implement the six-point peace plan of U.N.-Arab League envoy Annan, "in particular to cease all armed violence."

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon reaffirmed a call for all sides to cease violence and "to distance themselves from indiscriminate bombings and other terrorist acts," his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Washington called the Damascus attacks "reprehensible" while Annan described them as "abhorrent.” Russia and China separately called for a stop to the violence and urged all parties in Syria to cooperate with Annan's peace plan.