Damascus, May 11, 2012, Source: Reuters
Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus yesterday, state media said, in the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since the uprising began 14 months ago.
The near-simultaneous explosions hit the al-Qazaz district just before 8am, residents said. One punched a crater 3m deep in the city’s southern ring road. State television also showed at least one overturned lorry, and walls of buildings on each side of the avenue had collapsed.
Syria, May 9, 2012, Source: AFP
A roadside bomb wounded six soldiers as they escorted a convoy of UN peace observers, including the general who heads the mission, in southern Syria on Wednesday, an AFP photographer said.
The explosive device, which appeared to have been planted underground, detonated as the convoy of four vehicles was about to enter the town of Daraa. Major General Robert Mood of Norway, the head of the UN mission, was in the convoy but escaped unharmed along with 11 other observers and his spokesman Neeraj Singh, said the photographer who was travelling in the convoy.
UNITED NATIONS, May 8, 2012, Source: Reuters
Weapons are being smuggled both ways between Lebanon and Syria, where a 14-month popular uprising has brought the country to the brink of civil war, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Syria has repeatedly said weapons are being smuggled over its border from Lebanon and other countries to arm rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict. Western diplomats and U.N. officials say that although the rebels have received some weapons they remain severely outgunned.
“Based on information that we have there are reasons to believe that there is a flow of arms both ways – from Lebanon into Syria and from Syria into Lebanon,” said Terje Roed-Larsen, U.N. special envoy on the implementation of a security council resolution that calls for the disarming of Lebanese militia.
Lebanese authorities seized 60,000 rounds of ammunition hidden in two cars on an Italian container ship docked at the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli, a security source said earlier on Tuesday.
In late April, Lebanese authorities seized a large consignment of Libyan weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy caliber ammunition from a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean. The ship’s owner said the vessel was traveling to Tripoli in Lebanon.
Commenting on the events, Ribal Al-Assad, Director of the ODFS, said:
“I condemn these barbaric terrorist attacks. The perpetrators must be brought to justice. The cross border arms flow has led to a greater militarisation of the conflict, which has exacerbated the violence and has brought Syria closer to a disastrous civil war. Therefore I call on all those who are supplying weapons to stop.
“I urge both sides in the Syrian conflict to halt the violence and seize the small opportunity to move towards dialogue and a peaceful transition as that is the only way forward.”
