Suicide explosion kills 25 in Syrian capital
Source: Agencies |
January 7, 2012, Saturday
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AN explosion ripped through a busy intersection in the Syrian capital yesterday, hitting a police bus and killing up to 25 people in what Syrian authorities said was the second suicide attack in as many weeks.
The bus was left riddled with shrapnel, blood splattered on its seats and pooled on the asphalt of the street after the blast, which came exactly two weeks after twin bombings targeting intelligence agencies in the capital killed 44 people.
The bombings mark a dramatic escalation of bloodshed as Arab League observers tour the country to investigate President Bashar Assad's crackdown on a 10-month-old popular revolt.
Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar said a suicide bomber "detonated himself with the aim of killing the largest number of people."
Syrian television showed residents and paramedics carrying human remains, holding them up for the camera. The explosion damaged a nearby police station, shattering its glass, and left blood and flesh in the streets.
Syria's state media, SANA, said the initial death toll is 25 people. The figure includes 10 people confirmed dead and the remains of an estimated 15 others, whose bodies had yet to be identified. SANA said many of the dead are civilians.
The government has long contended that the turmoil in Syria this year is not an uprising but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.
The blast went off at an intersection in the central Damascus neighborhood of Midan yesterday - the start of the weekend in Syria and much of the Arab world. Midan is one of several Damascus neighborhoods that has seen frequent anti-Assad protests on Fridays since the uprising began in March.
"I heard the explosion at about 11:15am and came running here. I found bodies on the ground including one of a man who was carrying two boxes of yogurt," Midan resident Anis Hassan Tinawi, 55, said.
The bus, which was carrying policemen at the time, appeared to be the target of the bomber, said a Syrian official.
The official also said a smaller bomb exploded yesterday in the Damascus suburb of Tal, killing a girl. Security experts dismantled another bomb in the same area, he said.
Compared to many parts of the country which have been convulsed by the 10-month old uprising, Damascus has been relatively quiet under the control of security agencies.
State-run TV said al-Qaida was possibly to blame for previous attack, and blamed "terrorists" for the latest one. Dissident soldiers who broke from the military to side with peaceful protesters have launched attacks on government sites, raising fears of civil war.
The bus was left riddled with shrapnel, blood splattered on its seats and pooled on the asphalt of the street after the blast, which came exactly two weeks after twin bombings targeting intelligence agencies in the capital killed 44 people.
The bombings mark a dramatic escalation of bloodshed as Arab League observers tour the country to investigate President Bashar Assad's crackdown on a 10-month-old popular revolt.
Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar said a suicide bomber "detonated himself with the aim of killing the largest number of people."
Syrian television showed residents and paramedics carrying human remains, holding them up for the camera. The explosion damaged a nearby police station, shattering its glass, and left blood and flesh in the streets.
Syria's state media, SANA, said the initial death toll is 25 people. The figure includes 10 people confirmed dead and the remains of an estimated 15 others, whose bodies had yet to be identified. SANA said many of the dead are civilians.
The government has long contended that the turmoil in Syria this year is not an uprising but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.
The blast went off at an intersection in the central Damascus neighborhood of Midan yesterday - the start of the weekend in Syria and much of the Arab world. Midan is one of several Damascus neighborhoods that has seen frequent anti-Assad protests on Fridays since the uprising began in March.
"I heard the explosion at about 11:15am and came running here. I found bodies on the ground including one of a man who was carrying two boxes of yogurt," Midan resident Anis Hassan Tinawi, 55, said.
The bus, which was carrying policemen at the time, appeared to be the target of the bomber, said a Syrian official.
The official also said a smaller bomb exploded yesterday in the Damascus suburb of Tal, killing a girl. Security experts dismantled another bomb in the same area, he said.
Compared to many parts of the country which have been convulsed by the 10-month old uprising, Damascus has been relatively quiet under the control of security agencies.
State-run TV said al-Qaida was possibly to blame for previous attack, and blamed "terrorists" for the latest one. Dissident soldiers who broke from the military to side with peaceful protesters have launched attacks on government sites, raising fears of civil war.
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