Syria, rebels trade blame for bombings
March 19, 2012 01:51 am
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on March 19, 2012, on page 1.
March 19, 2012 01:51 am
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| People gather at the site of the car bombing in Aleppo. |
BEIRUT: Syria and opposition forces traded accusations after a car bomb ripped through a residential area of Syria’s second city Aleppo Sunday, a day after twin blasts killed 27 in the capital Damascus. The series of deadly blasts came as U.N. teams prepare for a government-led humanitarian mission and work at launching a monitoring operation to end a year of bloodshed that has seen upwards of 8,000 people killed.
They also coincided with a forceful security crackdown on opposition rallies marking one year since the first nationwide protests erupted in Syria.
The latest blast targeted political security offices in the northern city of Aleppo, killing three civilians and wounding more than 25 others, according to local residents and activists.
State media said the car bomb exploded near a church, residential buildings and schools.
One Aleppo resident, who witnessed the blast in the Sulaymaniyah neighborhood, told The Daily Star that the blast occurred at around 12:45 p.m. “I heard an explosion from my home, and I heard it very near ... I went out [and] there was huge smoke in the air,” he wrote in an email. “It’s in a dead-end street in Sulaymaniyah, exactly behind the political security bureau which is between the post office and a Latin monastery.”
After the blast, he said plain-clothed security officers and Shabbiha forces blocked roads around the area, firing their guns into the air to prevent people from approaching.
The opposition Syrian National Council accused the regime of staging the deadly attacks to terrorize its own citizens and to present Al-Qaeda as a threat in the country, calling for an international inquiry into the explosions and the role of President Bashar Assad in “terrorist acts committed on Syrian soil.”
“The Syrian regime wants to terrorize the large agglomerations, especially Damascus and Aleppo where large demonstrations have taken place these past few weeks,” SNC executive bureau member Samir Nashar told AFP.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said two people died and 30 were wounded “when an armed terrorist group detonated a booby-trapped car while the authorities were dragging it out of a residential area.”
The capital and Aleppo have maintained relatively high levels of support for the regime and have been relatively unscathed by violence. The last major suicide bombing in Aleppo was on Feb. 10, when twin blasts struck security compounds, killing 28 people. Damascus has seen a half-dozen suicide bombings since December, most hitting intelligence and security buildings.
On Saturday, 27 people – mostly civilians – and 140 others were killed when twin car bombs exploded at Baghdad Street, in the heart of Damascus. The bombings, outside the heavily fortified air force security building, shook the neighborhood, blowing glass out of the windows in nearby buildings, residents told The Daily Star.
Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of Assad’s ruling party of the same name, said the explosions “were carried out by terrorists supported by foreign powers which finance and arm them.”
“The two attacks ... aim to disrupt Annan’s mission and to foil international efforts to find a political solution to the crisis,” it said, referring to U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan.
Former U.N. chief Annan, who met Assad in Damascus last weekend, has ordered a team of experts to Syria to discuss a possible cease-fire and international monitoring mission, his spokesman said. Members of Annan’s team will head to Damascus from New York and Geneva Monday.
Meanwhile, technical experts from the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation were to take part in a mission to assess the humanitarian impact of the crackdown on anti-regime protests since March 2011.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who held talks in Damascus this month, said they would at the weekend join the assessment mission to Deraa, Homs, Hama, Tartous, Latakia, Aleppo, Deir Ezzour and rural zones around Damascus.
The U.N. estimates more than 30,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring states and another 200,000 have been displaced by the past 12 months of violence.
On the ground Sunday activists said security forces and pro-government thugs swiftly dispersed an anti-regime rally in Damascus to mark the one-year anniversary of the uprising and arrested opposition leaders.
They said the deployment of government snipers and tanks, as well as clashes between rebels and regime forces, deterred major demonstrations in some other parts of the country.
The anniversary falls after government offensives against rebel enclaves in the central city of Homs, the northern town of Idlib and the uprising’s birthplace in the city of Deraa.
Many activists consider March 18, 2011, the start of the popular uprising seeking to oust Assad. Thousands took to the streets in cities across Syria on that day, and security forces killed marchers in Deraa.
Since then, Assad’s security forces have sought to crush all signs of dissent, but protests and international condemnation have spread. Many in the opposition have taken up arms to defend themselves and attack government forces as the increasingly militarized conflict has become one of the bloodiest of the Arab Spring.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on an activist network in Syria, said the Syrian army and pro-government thugs fired guns and arrested leaders while breaking up the Damascus rally, which they said had drawn hundreds of participants.
The Local Coordination Committees said the rally took place in the central Fahameh Square and that opposition leaders Faiz Sara was briefly arrested. Activists elsewhere said security forces hampered plans to mark the day, opening fire on marchers in the provinces of Idlib in the north and Deir Ezzour in the east.
Raids by security forces killed three civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, in the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiyah region of Idlib, said the Observatory.
And tight security, including army checkpoints on main roads and snipers on government buildings, restricted protest plans in Deraa, activists said.
Activist Adel al-Omari said at the uprising’s start a year ago, people from the surrounding regions flooded in to participate in protests. Now many fear leaving their villages.
“They have a hard time because there are many more checkpoints in and around the city,” he said. “They can’t have a big protests, only small quick ones that are spread out. If they get too big or last too long, the army will come and crack down.”
A number of armed rebel groups fighting under the banner of the loose-knit Free Syrian Army regularly clash with government forces in the Deraa area, and activists posted videos online Sunday of a highway bridge they said had been destroyed by opposition fighters near the village of Khirbet Ghazaleh. The attacks sought to block the army from bringing more tanks and other military reinforcements into the area.
The Syrian government has barred most media from operating in the country, and activist claims could not be independently verified.
Jordanian Information Minister Rakan Majali meanwhile said that attempts by arms dealers to smuggle weapons into Syria have gone up since the start of the year, but that Jordanian authorities foil them. He said Jordan’s northern border with Syria is being “carefully watched” by Jordanian security.
They also coincided with a forceful security crackdown on opposition rallies marking one year since the first nationwide protests erupted in Syria.
The latest blast targeted political security offices in the northern city of Aleppo, killing three civilians and wounding more than 25 others, according to local residents and activists.
State media said the car bomb exploded near a church, residential buildings and schools.
One Aleppo resident, who witnessed the blast in the Sulaymaniyah neighborhood, told The Daily Star that the blast occurred at around 12:45 p.m. “I heard an explosion from my home, and I heard it very near ... I went out [and] there was huge smoke in the air,” he wrote in an email. “It’s in a dead-end street in Sulaymaniyah, exactly behind the political security bureau which is between the post office and a Latin monastery.”
After the blast, he said plain-clothed security officers and Shabbiha forces blocked roads around the area, firing their guns into the air to prevent people from approaching.
The opposition Syrian National Council accused the regime of staging the deadly attacks to terrorize its own citizens and to present Al-Qaeda as a threat in the country, calling for an international inquiry into the explosions and the role of President Bashar Assad in “terrorist acts committed on Syrian soil.”
“The Syrian regime wants to terrorize the large agglomerations, especially Damascus and Aleppo where large demonstrations have taken place these past few weeks,” SNC executive bureau member Samir Nashar told AFP.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said two people died and 30 were wounded “when an armed terrorist group detonated a booby-trapped car while the authorities were dragging it out of a residential area.”
The capital and Aleppo have maintained relatively high levels of support for the regime and have been relatively unscathed by violence. The last major suicide bombing in Aleppo was on Feb. 10, when twin blasts struck security compounds, killing 28 people. Damascus has seen a half-dozen suicide bombings since December, most hitting intelligence and security buildings.
On Saturday, 27 people – mostly civilians – and 140 others were killed when twin car bombs exploded at Baghdad Street, in the heart of Damascus. The bombings, outside the heavily fortified air force security building, shook the neighborhood, blowing glass out of the windows in nearby buildings, residents told The Daily Star.
Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of Assad’s ruling party of the same name, said the explosions “were carried out by terrorists supported by foreign powers which finance and arm them.”
“The two attacks ... aim to disrupt Annan’s mission and to foil international efforts to find a political solution to the crisis,” it said, referring to U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan.
Former U.N. chief Annan, who met Assad in Damascus last weekend, has ordered a team of experts to Syria to discuss a possible cease-fire and international monitoring mission, his spokesman said. Members of Annan’s team will head to Damascus from New York and Geneva Monday.
Meanwhile, technical experts from the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation were to take part in a mission to assess the humanitarian impact of the crackdown on anti-regime protests since March 2011.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who held talks in Damascus this month, said they would at the weekend join the assessment mission to Deraa, Homs, Hama, Tartous, Latakia, Aleppo, Deir Ezzour and rural zones around Damascus.
The U.N. estimates more than 30,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring states and another 200,000 have been displaced by the past 12 months of violence.
On the ground Sunday activists said security forces and pro-government thugs swiftly dispersed an anti-regime rally in Damascus to mark the one-year anniversary of the uprising and arrested opposition leaders.
They said the deployment of government snipers and tanks, as well as clashes between rebels and regime forces, deterred major demonstrations in some other parts of the country.
The anniversary falls after government offensives against rebel enclaves in the central city of Homs, the northern town of Idlib and the uprising’s birthplace in the city of Deraa.
Many activists consider March 18, 2011, the start of the popular uprising seeking to oust Assad. Thousands took to the streets in cities across Syria on that day, and security forces killed marchers in Deraa.
Since then, Assad’s security forces have sought to crush all signs of dissent, but protests and international condemnation have spread. Many in the opposition have taken up arms to defend themselves and attack government forces as the increasingly militarized conflict has become one of the bloodiest of the Arab Spring.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on an activist network in Syria, said the Syrian army and pro-government thugs fired guns and arrested leaders while breaking up the Damascus rally, which they said had drawn hundreds of participants.
The Local Coordination Committees said the rally took place in the central Fahameh Square and that opposition leaders Faiz Sara was briefly arrested. Activists elsewhere said security forces hampered plans to mark the day, opening fire on marchers in the provinces of Idlib in the north and Deir Ezzour in the east.
Raids by security forces killed three civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, in the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiyah region of Idlib, said the Observatory.
And tight security, including army checkpoints on main roads and snipers on government buildings, restricted protest plans in Deraa, activists said.
Activist Adel al-Omari said at the uprising’s start a year ago, people from the surrounding regions flooded in to participate in protests. Now many fear leaving their villages.
“They have a hard time because there are many more checkpoints in and around the city,” he said. “They can’t have a big protests, only small quick ones that are spread out. If they get too big or last too long, the army will come and crack down.”
A number of armed rebel groups fighting under the banner of the loose-knit Free Syrian Army regularly clash with government forces in the Deraa area, and activists posted videos online Sunday of a highway bridge they said had been destroyed by opposition fighters near the village of Khirbet Ghazaleh. The attacks sought to block the army from bringing more tanks and other military reinforcements into the area.
The Syrian government has barred most media from operating in the country, and activist claims could not be independently verified.
Jordanian Information Minister Rakan Majali meanwhile said that attempts by arms dealers to smuggle weapons into Syria have gone up since the start of the year, but that Jordanian authorities foil them. He said Jordan’s northern border with Syria is being “carefully watched” by Jordanian security.
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