At least 28 killed as bombs target security forces

Severed limbs and mangled bodies lay on the ground outside the military buildings in the aftermath of the latest round of violence

BEIRUT — Bomb attacks killed at least 28 people in Syria’s second city Aleppo on Friday, while Homs endured another day of shelling and a gun battle broke out in Damascus, the nearest violence to the centre of the capital in an 11- month uprising.

The two Aleppo bombings were the worst violence to hit the country’s commercial hub during the revolt against the Assad family’s 42- year dynastic rule.

Mangled bodies and severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the military and security service buildings that were targeted. The scene was shown in live footage on Syrian television, which has consistently portrayed the revolt against President Bashar Assad as the work of foreign- backed “terrorists.”

No one claimed responsibility for the Aleppo bombings but they took place as Assad’s forces reportedly grow more ferocious in operations to crush the uprising. Some opposition figures accused the government of manipulating events to discredit them.

Friday saw more unrest across the country, with activists claiming security forces opened fire in Latakia, in the town of Dael in Deraa province, and elsewhere to break up demonstrations taking place after weekly Muslim prayers.

In Damascus, members of the Free Syrian Army fought for four hours with troops backed by armoured vehicles who had entered al- Qaboun neighbourhood in the north of the capital during a protest 1.5 kilometres from the main Abbaside Square, activists said.

The rebels said they had had several casualties but it was not known if any had died of their wounds.

In the western Syrian city of Homs, where exiled Syrian groups say a week of bombardments has killed dozens of civilians, four people were killed in the opposition- held neighbourhoods of Baba Amro and Bab Sebaa, the London- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Troops also opened fire as worshippers left a mosque in Homs after Friday prayers.

Activists in Homs said shelling started up again in the morning and they feared a big push was imminent to storm residential areas of the city that has come to symbolize the plight of those opposing the Assad government.

As usual, none of the claims of casualties could be independently verified.

“The carnage in Homs continues and the martyrdom of the Syrian people continues,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. “Not only are we seeing an army that is massacring its own people, but for the Syrian army, hospitals and doctors have become systematic targets for repression.”

Bolstered by Russian support, Assad has ignored appeals from the United States, Turkey, Europeans, fellow Arabs and other governments to halt the violence and to step down.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which suspended a monitoring mission in Syria last month because of the violence, will discuss a proposal to send a joint UN- Arab mission to Syria when they meet in Cairo on Sunday, a League official said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe will meet his Russian counterpart in Vienna on Thursday to discuss Syria, Valero said.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, added her voice to international calls for Moscow, Syria’s strongest ally and main arms supplier, to support a UN resolution demanding Assad halt the crackdown.

Saudi Arabia circulated a draft resolution backing an Arab peace plan among members of the UN General Assembly on Friday which, like the failed council resolution, “fully supports” the last month’s Arab League plan, diplomats said.

Russia, which has sent tanks into its own rebel cities in recent memory and is keen to counter U. S. influence in the region, says no one should interfere in Syria’s affairs.