Several killed in Syria bomb attack

At least sixteen people have been killed and more than 25 wounded, including women and children, after a car bomb exploded in Qatana, a town 25km southwest of Damascus, Syrian state media reports.
The SANA news agency reported that seven children were among the dead after Thursday’s explosion.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government rights group, earlier reported that a large explosion had occurred outside an army housing complex in the town. It confirmed that the dead were civilians, and said that at least seven children and two women were among those killed.

Fighting was also taking place in various suburbs of Damascus between government troops and rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, anti-government activists said.

“The battles are raging in the suburban areas of Daraya, Arbeen, Harasta,” said Haytham al-Abdullah, a Syrian activist based in Damascus.

“Jets are using TNT barrel bombs to strike the opposition rebel bases in these areas,” he told the DPA news agency.

US officials said on Wednesday that al-Assad’s government had begun using Scud missiles and barrel bombs against rebels.

An upsurge in attacks by rebels on state institutions in Damascus has prompted authorities to tighten security around vital facilities, say activists.

The measure comes a day after three blasts targeted the interior ministry, killing at least nine people, activists said.

Russia says opposition may win
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, said on Thursday that the Syrian president’s hold on power was loosening, and that the opposition may succeed in its aim of toppling his government.

The remarks by Mikhail Bogdanov to the ITAR-TASS news agency are the first acknowledgement by a Russian official that the Syrian president could lose what has turned into a civil war.

“As for preparing for victory by the opposition, this, of course, cannot be excluded,” Bogdanov said. “You need to look the facts in the eyes – the government regime is losing more and more control over a large part of the country’s territory.”

Russia has strongly opposed any foreign intervention in the Syrian crisis, saying that the conflict is an internal issue.

Bogdanov repeated Russia’s call for a compromise, saying it would take the opposition a long time to defeat the regime and the country would suffer heavy casualties.

“The fighting will become even more intense, and you will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of people,” he said. “If such a price for the ouster of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable.”

Source: aljazeera