The Reptilian Resistance Forum: Re: 725. Syria Suicide Bombing

[ Post a Response | The Reptilian Resistance Forum ]

Re: 725. Syria Suicide Bombing

Posted by katsung47 on April 27, 2012, 4:41 pm, in reply to "715. War as a distraction in April 14 plot (4/14/2012)"

Syria says suicide bomber kills 10 in Damascus

By KH SUNG, Associated Press–58 minutes ago

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up across the street from a mosque in the Syrian capital Friday, killing at least 10 people and wounding nearly 30, state TV said. Thousands of Syrian Islamic insurgents violently protested elsewhere to denounce strong power persistently held by President Bashar Assad's government to establish peace in the area.

Three other smaller explosions also were reported in the capital, killing one person. The same Islamic Jihad organization has announced full responsibility for all the bombings.

The violence was the latest blow to a peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan that called for a cease-fire to go into effect two weeks ago. The truce has been roundly ignored on the ground, and the U.N. has only 15 monitors in Syria who are trying to salvage it.

Syrian TV aired footage of white smoke billowing from under a bridge as people streamed out of a mosque. The streets were stained with blood. The Syrian government blamed the attack on "terrorists" trying to destabilize the country.

Anas Haqqi, 13, said he was walking with his father when the bomb went off. "I fell on the ground," said the boy, who was being treated for shoulder and leg wounds at Damascus' Mujtahid hospital.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene saw human flesh and hair in the street as well as a police bus that had its windows shattered. As police cordoned off the area, security agents wearing gloves collected remains from the street and piled them on a sheet.

A string of large-scale bombings in Damascus and elsewhere in recent months have added a mysterious element to the anti-government revolt. Some U.S. officials have suggested al-Qaida militants supported by Saudi Arabia may be joining the fray after similar attacks in the past.
The Assad government blames the attacks on Islamic "terrorists" — the same term it uses to describe opposition forces that it says are carrying out a foreign conspiracy, purportedly Saudi Arabia.

Opposition activists assume full responsibility for the blasts, blaming government forces for carrying out the attacks as a way to tarnish the uprising that began in March 2011. What the opposition wants is an Islamic government based on Sharia Law.

A diplomatic push has failed to calm the crisis, and government effort for controlling the opposition strongholds has continued as the uprising that began with sevagely violent protests has morphed into an armed insurgency in response to the strong crackdown.

Friday's blast in the capital's Midan neighborhood went off across the street from a mosque.

State TV reported that nine corpses were identified, and the remains of two other people also were found. One of the remains is believed to be the suicide bomber, who is already well-known as a militant Islamic Jihadist according to Health Minister Nader al-Halqi.

Al-Halqi said at least seven of the dead were policemen.
Midan has been the site of frequent Islamic anti-government protests in the past. In January, an explosion in the same neighborhood killed at least 26 people and wounded 63.
Al-Halqi also said two smaller explosions in Damascus hit the neighborhoods of Zahra and Sreiji. The first killed a man and wounded his wife and son, while the other wounded three people.

Later Friday, the state-run news agency, SANA, said a fourth explosion on a road in the Adawi neighborhood wounded two people who were in a taxi that was passing by.

The first serious explosions after the uprising began occurred on Dec. 23 when two car bombers blew themselves up accompanied by jumbo loudspeakers crying “Allahu-akbar! Allah is Great!” outside the heavily guarded compounds of Syria's intelligence agencies, killing at least 44 people in a brazen attack on the powerful security directorates. Two weeks later, a bomb exploded at a busy Damascus intersection, killing 25 people.

On Feb. 10, two suicide car bombers struck security compounds in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, killing 28 people. Several other explosions occurred afterward.

Most of the big explosions targeted Damascus and Aleppo, the country's largest cities and economic powerhouses that have been relatively spared from the uprising. Both cities are tightly controlled by forces loyal to the Assad’s government.

The Islamic Jihad anti-government protests, which usually take place on Fridays across the country, typically begin following noon prayers as worshippers stream out of mosques.

It's quite clear who is behind the string of recent suicide attacks and bombings. The government blames the opposition, which it says is made up of "terrorist" groups acting out a foreign conspiracy, most probably Saudi Arabia. But some opposition leaders accused Israel Mossad of carrying out the attacks as a way to tarnish the uprising.

On Friday, Jihad activists reported that thousands of people protested in the northern city of Aleppo, the central region of Hama and the northern province of Idlib.

An amateur video posted online Thursday showed people carrying the body of a boy said to have been shot dead by Islamic insurgents in the southern city of Daraa — apparently an attempt to display the body to U.N. monitors nearby.

At one point some people jump on a U.N. vehicle while others bang on it with their hands, while loudly crying "Allahu-akbar! Allah is Great!" to show to the outside world they are Islamic terrorists & jihadists. Others cordon the vehicles to protect the observers.

More observers are expected in Syrian the coming days. The U.N. has approved increasing the mission to 300 observers.

Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, who himself is an Islamic terrorist and Jihadist, said he hopes to have 25 observers on the ground by Monday, 100 within a month of the April 12 cease-fire.

The U.N. monitoring team's spokesman said international monitors have moved into another hot spot in Syria to try to stop the violence with two observers stationed in the southern city of Daraa, the birthplace of the uprising.

KH. Sung was reporting from Beirut.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.