Israel Matzav

Another bomb blast in Syria

There's been another bomb blast in Damascus, Syria outside a hotel which is used to house UN monitors. At least three people have been hurt. Israel Radio reports (11:00 am) that the Free Syrian Army has taken responsibility for the blast.

The bomb, which was placed in a car park behind the hotel, blew up a fuel truck which sent clouds of black smoke into the sky above the capital.

Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, said none of the observers had been wounded in the blast, state television said. "This was a criminal act aimed at distorting Syria's image," it quoted him as saying.

The target was not immediately clear. The area is home to the Syrian army officers club and a building belonging to the ruling Baath Party and is also not far from the army command.

Video from the site of the explosion broadcast by El-Ikhbariya, a pro-government channel, showed firemen hosing down a steaming fuel truck whose tank was blasted open near the hotel. A row of white UN vehicles parked nearby was covered in ash and dust.

A witness said the explosion had gone off at around 8.30 a.m. and damaged a building opposite the Dama Rose Hotel, where the monitors were staying, but appeared not to have damaged the hotel itself.

The New York Times adds:

Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the United Nations mission, said: “I can confirm that around 5 a.m. there was an explosion outside the Dama Rose hotel, where the U.N. members stay. I can confirm that none of the U.N. members were injured.”

The hotel is close to a military depot and the explosion sent up a huge plume of smoke, news reports said.

It was not clear who planted the explosives, which seemed to show a degree of lawlessness that would once have been unthinkable in the Syrian capital before the revolt beginning in March 2011 began to challenge and undermine the iron control of the Assad dynasty.

If the UN were smart (which of course they are not), they would get out of Syria before the real bloodbath begins. Everyone else has. (And that's not to minimize what has happened until now, but once one side wins the current stand-off it is likely to massacre anyone who remains from the other side, including civilians).

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Damascus, Syrian uprising, United Nations

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:31 AM