.Massive blasts in Syrian city claim 55 lives
Two suicide bombers killed at least 55 people and wounded nearly 400 in the Syrian capital Damascus today, authorities said, in the deadliest attacks of the country’s 14-month uprising.
The blasts during the morning rush hour left an apocalyptic scene of destruction and further put into question a UN-backed ceasefire that has failed to take hold since it went into effect on April 12.
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who brokered the truce, strongly condemned the bombings as the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition accused each other of being responsible.
Russia and China, both supporters of Assad’s embattled regime, called for a stop to the violence and urged all parties in Syria to cooperate with Annan’s peace plan.
State television aired gruesome footage of the aftermath of the twin explosions in the neighbourhood of Qazzaz, blaming “terrorists”, the term used by authorities to refer to rebels seeking to topple Assad’s regime.
The television showed images of a woman’s charred hand on a steering wheel, her gold bracelets dangling from her blackened wrist.
Other burnt and mangled bodies lay in the street amid the carcasses of smouldering vehicles and rubble.
“Is that the freedom you want? Students from schools and employees going to work are dead,” shouted one man in the middle of the destruction.
The explosions took place on a main freeway in the south of Damascus, in front of a nine-storey security complex whose facade was heavily damaged while nearby residential buildings collapsed.
The interior ministry said the suicide attackers used a tonne of explosives, killing at least 55 people and wounding 372.
It added that emergency workers filled 15 bags with body parts of others who died, and that the blasts also destroyed around 200 cars.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the bombings targeted an intelligence base and killed 59 people, including civilians and security personnel.
The attacks came a day after UN observers monitoring the ceasefire escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb exploded as they were visiting the flashpoint southern city of Daraa. Ten Syrian troops escorting them were hurt.
“This is yet another example of the suffering brought upon the people of Syria,” said Major General Robert Mood, chief of a UN observer mission, who visited the site of the explosions.
“We, the world community, are here with the Syrian people and I call on everyone within and outside Syria to help stop this violence,” he added.
In Geneva, Annan said through his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi that he “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attacks that took place earlier today in Damascus.”
“Any action that serves to escalate tensions and raise the level of violence can only be counter-productive to the interests of all parties,” he added. (AFP)
Daily Nation
The blasts during the morning rush hour left an apocalyptic scene of destruction and further put into question a UN-backed ceasefire that has failed to take hold since it went into effect on April 12.
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who brokered the truce, strongly condemned the bombings as the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition accused each other of being responsible.
Russia and China, both supporters of Assad’s embattled regime, called for a stop to the violence and urged all parties in Syria to cooperate with Annan’s peace plan.
State television aired gruesome footage of the aftermath of the twin explosions in the neighbourhood of Qazzaz, blaming “terrorists”, the term used by authorities to refer to rebels seeking to topple Assad’s regime.
The television showed images of a woman’s charred hand on a steering wheel, her gold bracelets dangling from her blackened wrist.
Other burnt and mangled bodies lay in the street amid the carcasses of smouldering vehicles and rubble.
“Is that the freedom you want? Students from schools and employees going to work are dead,” shouted one man in the middle of the destruction.
The explosions took place on a main freeway in the south of Damascus, in front of a nine-storey security complex whose facade was heavily damaged while nearby residential buildings collapsed.
The interior ministry said the suicide attackers used a tonne of explosives, killing at least 55 people and wounding 372.
It added that emergency workers filled 15 bags with body parts of others who died, and that the blasts also destroyed around 200 cars.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the bombings targeted an intelligence base and killed 59 people, including civilians and security personnel.
The attacks came a day after UN observers monitoring the ceasefire escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb exploded as they were visiting the flashpoint southern city of Daraa. Ten Syrian troops escorting them were hurt.
“This is yet another example of the suffering brought upon the people of Syria,” said Major General Robert Mood, chief of a UN observer mission, who visited the site of the explosions.
“We, the world community, are here with the Syrian people and I call on everyone within and outside Syria to help stop this violence,” he added.
In Geneva, Annan said through his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi that he “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attacks that took place earlier today in Damascus.”
“Any action that serves to escalate tensions and raise the level of violence can only be counter-productive to the interests of all parties,” he added. (AFP)
Daily Nation
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