Day of carnage in Damascus

Dozens killed, hundreds hurt in four bombings across Syrian capital

BEIRUT: Ninety people died in Thursday’s four bombings across Damascus, a violence monitoring group said, making it one of the bloodiest days in the Syrian capital since the outbreak of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad nearly two years ago.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, quoting figures it said were compiled from medical sources, said at least 60 of the dead were killed in a powerful car bomb blast in the Mazraa district of central Damascus, near the Russian embassy and offices of Assad’s ruling Ba’ath Party.

The others were killed in three co-ordinated bombings in the northeastern district of Barzeh, the Britain-based group said.

Syrian state media put the death toll from the Mazraa bombing at 53, with more than 200 wounded. Activists and officials said most of those killed were civilians, including children.More than 200 people were killed elsewhere, including in the Damascus suburbs, the southern city of Deraa and northern commercial hub of Aleppo, bringing Thursday’s toll to about 300 – one of the highest in a single day, the observatory said.

The UN says 70 000 people have died in Syria’s conflict, the bloodiest and most protracted of the uprisings which have convulsed the Arab world over the past two years.

Russia, a staunch ally of Assad’s, accused the US yesterday of having double standards over the violence in Syria, saying Washington had blocked a UN Security Council statement condemning the Mazraa car bomb. “We… see in it a very dangerous tendency by our Ameri- can colleagues to depart from the fundamental principle of unconditional condemnation of any terrorist act, a principle which secures the unity of the international com- munity in the fight against terrorism,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the al- Qaeda- linked hardline rebel group Jabhat alNusra has said it has carried out dozens of attacks in the past year, including devastating bombings in Damascus and Aleppo. – Sapa-AP

PICTURE:REUTERS MEAN STREET: Damaged cars are piled up to be used as cover from snipers in the Khaldiyeh area of Homs this week.