Twin blasts kill 27, injure 140 in Damascus
Two car bombs detonate outside government buildings in the Syrian capital, a third may have gone off at a refugee camp
Two “terrorist explosions” struck security targets in the Syrian capital Saturday morning, killing at least 27 and injuring 140, the country’s state news agency quoted Health Minister Wael al-Halki saying.
The report said preliminary information indicated the blasts were caused by car bombs that hit the aviation intelligence department and the criminal security department at around 7:30 a.m local time. Shooting broke out in the wake of the blast and sent residents and others who had gathered in the area fleeing, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.
A Syrian official said there were reports of a third blast targeting a military bus at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, but there were no details. He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The state-run news agency, SANA, posted gruesome photographs of the scene, with mangled and charred corpses, bloodstains on the streets and twisted steel.
“All our windows and doors are blown out,” said Majed Seibiyah, 29, who lives in the area. “I was sleeping when I heard a sound like an earthquake. I didn’t grasp what was happening until I hear screaming in the street.”
One year into the Syrian revolt, the fight to oust President Bashar Assad is transforming into a nascent civil war. The regime says it is fighting foreign terrorists and armed gangs, denying there is a popular will behind the revolt. But Assad’s opponents say they have been forced to carry weapons because the government used tanks, snipers and machine guns to crush peaceful protests.
The blasts were the latest in a string of mysterious, large-scale attacks targeting the Syrian regime’s military and security installations. The previous blasts, all suicide bombings, killed dozens of people since December, even as the regime wages a bloody crackdown against the year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.
The government has blamed the explosions on the “terrorists” that it claims are behind the revolt. The opposition has denied any role, saying they believe forces loyal to the government are behind the bombings to tarnish the uprising.
But top US intelligence officials also have pointed to al-Qaeda in Iraq as the likely culprit behind the previous bombings, raising the possibility its fighters are infiltrating across the border to take advantage of the turmoil.
Al-Qaeda’s leader called for Assad’s ouster in February.
A suspected al-Qaeda presence creates new obstacles for the US, its Western allies and Arab states trying to figure out a way to help push Assad from power, and may also rally Syrian religious minorities, fearful of Sunni radicalism, to get behind the regime.
Bassma Kodmani, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, said she doubted armed groups trying to bring Assad down by force, such as the rebel Free Syrian Army, have the capacity to carry out such attacks on security institutions in the capital.
“I don’t think any of the opposition forces or the free Syrian army has the capacity to do such an operation to target these buildings because they are fortresses,” she said by telephone. “They are very well guarded. There is no way anyone can penetrate them without having strong support and complicity from inside the security apparatus.”
The UN estimates that more that 8,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began last March.
In recent weeks, Syrian forces have waged a series of heavy offensives against the main strongholds of the opposition — Homs in central Syria, Idlib in the north and Daraa in the south.
The bloodshed fuels the country’s sectarian tensions. The military’s top leadership is stacked heavily with members of the minority Alawite sect, to which Assad and the ruling elite belong.
Sunnis are the majority in the country of 22 million and make up the backbone of the opposition.
MK Tzipi Livni condemned Assad’s year-long genocide during a trip to northern Israel on Saturday, and urged Israeli and international condemnation and intervention.
“The crimes committed by Assad provide a opportunity for Israel to cooperate with the Arab League and more moderate countries in the Arab world — a partnership that can help the struggle against Iran in the future,” she said.
Diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis have so far brought no result. But UN envoy Kofi Annan told the Security Council in a briefing Friday that he would return to Damascus even though his recent talks with Assad saw no progress in attempts to cobble together peace negotiations between the two sides.
After the confidential briefing via videolink, Annan told reporters in Geneva that he urged the Council “to speak with one voice as we try to resolve the crisis in Syria.” Russia and China have blocked UN action against Assad’s regime.
“The first objective is for all of us to end the violence and human rights abuses and the killings and get unimpeded access for humanitarian access to the needy, and of course the all-important issue of political process that will lead to a democratic Syria,” Annan said.
Both Assad and much of the opposition spurned Annan’s appeal for talks.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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