Syria: Damascus blasts kill 40, wound 170
Felipe 
Two bomb explosions killed 40 people and wounded 170 in Damascus today.
Two bomb explosions killed 40 people and wounded 170 in Damascus today, state media reported, incinerating people in their cars and damaging an intelligence complex involved in President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on a 14-month-old uprising.
The bombings, the deadliest in the Syrian capital since the revolt began, further shredded a ceasefire which was declared by international mediator Kofi Annan on April 12, but which has failed to halt bloodshed pitting Assad’s security forces against peaceful demonstrators and an array of armed insurgents.
Syrian television blamed «terrorists» for the morning rush-hour blasts. It showed mangled, smoldering vehicles, some with charred remains of their occupants inside.
The near-simultaneous explosions hit the al-Qazaz district just before 8 am (0500 GMT), residents said. One punched a crater three meters (10 feet) deep in the city’s southern ring road. Bloodied corpses and body parts could be seen on the road.
State television also showed at least one overturned lorry. Walls of buildings on each side of the avenue had collapsed. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts.
«This is yet another example of the suffering brought upon the people of Syria from acts of violence,» said Major-General Robert Mood, leader of the UN monitors, who visited the scene.
The attacks occurred a day after a bomb blast near UN observers monitoring the ceasefire, which state forces and rebels have both violated, and two weeks after
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 849 people – 628 civilians and 221 soldiers, of whom 31 were defectors – had been killed since the April 12 truce. The toll did not include today’s deaths.
The British-based Observatory said a car bomb targeting an intelligence complex had caused at least one of the explosions.
One resident reported limited damage to the facade of the nearby Palestine Branch Military Intelligence centre, one of the most feared of more than 20 Syrian secret police agencies.
The Palestine Branch, a huge walled complex on the ring road, was the target of a car bomb in 2008 which killed 17 people and which authorities blamed on Islamist militants.
Shooting could be heard in the background of the Syrian television footage, filmed soon after the blasts. It showed a man pointing to the wreckage. «Is this freedom? This is the work of the Saudis,» he said, referring to the Gulf state that has advocated arming rebels seeking to oust Assad.
The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000 people in their crackdown on the protests. Syrian authorities blame foreign-backed Islamist militants for the violence, saying they have killed 2,600 soldiers and police.
In other violence, 10 rebels were killed overnight when tanks shelled the village of Ain Sheeb in the northwestern province of Idlib, opposition sources said. Tank fire also killed a civilian in the northwestern town of Ain Hamra.
buenosairesherald.com
Chiara 
