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Syria says twin suicide bombings in Damascus kill 40

BayBak, Azerbaijan | 514 days ago | Friday, 23rd December , 2011 , 18:58 [pm] | International

. But opposition activists said the government had staged the attacks to influence an Arab League observer team.

The observers are part of a plan to end the deadly crackdown on dissent.

At least 40 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in two suicide car bombings in Syria’s capital, Damascus, officials say.

State TV said suspected al-Qaeda militants had targeted a General Security Directorate base and another security agency in the Kafr Sousa area.

But opposition activists said the government had staged the attacks to influence an Arab League observer team.

The observers are part of a plan to end the deadly crackdown on dissent.

The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed and thousands more detained since anti-government protests erupted in March.

The monitors are tasked with overseeing the government’s compliance with an agreement that should see an end to violence by both sides, troops withdrawn from the streets and all detained protesters released.

But human rights and opposition activists said the killings continued on Friday, with security forces shooting dead at least 12 civilians.

The US state department on Friday condemned the attacks but said they must not deter the Arab League observers from doing their work.

‘Al-Qaeda infiltration’

The two explosions happened within minutes of each other on Friday morning.

Not long afterwards, State TV said two attacks had been “carried about by suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives against bases of state security [General Security Directorate] and another branch of the security services” in the upmarket Kfar Sousa district, south-west of the city centre.

“Preliminary investigations showed al-Qaeda was responsible,” it added.

Video footage was broadcast of heavily damaged buildings, with rescue workers combing through burnt buildings and blood-stained debris, and ambulances taking the injured away.

The state-owned news channel, al-Ikhbariya al-Suriya, said the first car bomb exploded outside the offices of an unspecified security agency.

When guards at a nearby compound housing the General Security Directorate went to inspect the aftermath of the first blast, the driver of another vehicle rammed the main gates and detonated the bomb it was carrying, the channel said.

“The explosions shook the house, it was frightful,” Nidal Hamidi, a Syrian journalist who lives in Kfar Sousa, told the Associated Press news agency.

Gunfire was heard immediately following the explosion and windows up to 200m (670ft) away were shattered, Mr Hamidi said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told reporters at the scene of one of the blasts that in addition to the dead, more than 100 people had been wounded.

“On the first day after the arrival of the Arab observers, this is the gift we get from the terrorists and al-Qaeda,” Mr Mekdad was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

“But we are going to do all we can to facilitate the Arab League mission.”

Mr Mekdad was accompanied by the Arab League’s Assistant Secretary General, Samir Seif al-Yazal, who said the nine-strong advance team of monitors would not be deterred.

“We are here to see the facts on the ground,” he added. “What we are seeing today is regretful, the important thing is for things to calm down.”

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdesi told the BBC that Lebanon had warned it two days ago that “al-Qaeda groups had infiltrated inside Syria through the town of Arsan”.

But the Syrian Revolution General Commission – a coalition of 40 opposition grassroots groups – accused the government of fabricating the attacks and urged the Arab League observers to investigate.

With a solid security presence, Damascus has largely escaped the violence and protests that have flared in other towns and cities, although there have been protests and some clashes in suburbs.

‘Very mysterious’

Human rights groups and opposition activists said there were more killings by security forces on Friday.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people had died in the central city of Homs, three in the southern province of Deraa, and three in the eastern oil city of Deir al-Zour.

It also published a video showing the bodies of at least 49 men, whom it said had been killed in the Jabal al-Zawiya area of Idlib province, where troops have launched assaults on army defectors and several villages.

The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria put the number of dead on Friday at 16.

Reports from Syria are difficult to verify as foreign journalists are unable to move around the country freely.

The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says Syria’s government insists that the unrest in the country is caused by “armed terrorist gangs”; that point is clearly underlined by the explosions.

Activists, who maintain their movement is peaceful, will undoubtedly regard the timing as deeply suspicious, our correspondent adds.

Omar Idilbi, a member of the main opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council, said the explosions were “very mysterious because they happened in heavily guarded areas that are difficult to penetrate by a car”.

On Thursday, the state news agency, Sana, reported that more than 2,000 security forces personnel had been killed during the uprising.

Separately on Friday, the Swiss government said it had frozen 50m Swiss francs ($53m) of assets owned by President Bashar al-Assad and other leading officials, Reuters reported.bbc

BayBak, All about a Nation, Voice of a Nation

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