UN condemns deadly bomb attacks in Damascus

The 15 Security Council members “condemned in the strongest terms the
terrorist attacks” in the Syrian capital, according to a statement.

The council called on all sides to “immediately and comprehensively”
implement the six-point peace plan of UN-Arab League envoy Annan, “in
particular to cease all armed violence”.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon reaffirmed a call for all sides to cease violence and “to
distance themselves from indiscriminate bombings and other terrorist acts”,
his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Syria’s UN envoy said British, French and Belgian nationals were among foreign
fighters killed in the country’s mounting conflict and that there was
al-Qaeda involvement.

The ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told the Security Council that on top of the
Damascus blasts, an explosion in the city of Aleppo had left “several
civilian victims and massive damage to private property”.

Jaafari said 12 foreign fighters had been killed and 26 detained in recent
clashes with Syrian forces, “including one French citizen, one British
citizen, one Belgian citizen”.

He said a list of the 26 foreigners detained had been sent to Ban and to the
Security Council.

Jaafari renewed condemnation of Gulf Arab states and Turkey whom he accused of
backing the foreign fighters and Syrian rebels.

Washington called the Damascus attacks “reprehensible” while Annan
described them as “abhorrent”. Russia and China separately called
for a stop to the violence and urged all parties in Syria to co-operate with
Annan’s peace plan.

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.

“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 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, and that the
blasts also destroyed around 200 cars.

“These crimes show that Syria is targeted by a terrorist attack launched
by organisations armed and funded by parties who proclaim their backing to
terrorist crimes,” the SANA news agency quoted the foreign ministry as
saying.

But the opposition Syrian National Council accused Assad’s regime of staging
the bombings in a bid to undermine a UN observer mission and to persuade the
international community that Damascus was battling “terrorists”.

The SNC accused the regime of placing the bodies of people it had killed at
the site of the bombings, to claim that they died in the blasts.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group,
said the Damascus bombings targeted an intelligence base and killed 59
people, including civilians and security personnel.

The watchdog says that more than 12,000 people, mostly civilians, have been
killed in Syria since the revolt broke out in March last year.

Thursday’s 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.

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