Suicide bombs kill 55 in Syria

Deadliest Damascus attack since uprising

Suicide attackers detonated massive bombs in Damascus during the morning rush hour on Thursday, killing at least 55 people and wounding nearly 400 in the deadliest bombings of Syria’s 14-month uprising.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan strongly condemned the attacks, which President Bashar al-Assad’s government blamed on “terrorists” and the opposition accused his regime of carrying out to threaten UN observers.

State television aired gruesome footage of the aftermath of the twin explosions in the neighbourhood of Qazzaz, which the UN mission chief later visited and appealed for help to end the bloodshed.

“Two explosions caused by terrorists took place on the freeway in the south of Damascus,” the television said, adding the blasts occurred “as people were heading to work and children to school.”

Syria’s interior ministry, cited on TV, said the suicide attackers used a tonne of explosives in the bombings, killing at least 55 people and wounding 372. It added that emergency workers filled 15 bags with body parts of others who died, and that the blasts also destroyed around 200 cars.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the bombings targeted an intelligence base and killed 59 people, including civilians and security personnel.