简体中文
People gather at the site following two car bombings at al-Qanawat area in Damascus, Syria on Dec. 12, 2012. Two roadside bombs ripped through a parking lot near the main courthouse in Syria's capital of Damascus on Wednesday, leaving injuries and property losses, the state media said. (Xinhua/Hazim).
A series of deadly blasts rattled Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday after the United States and its allies recognized the exiled Syrian opposition as the sole " legitimate representative" of Syrian people.
Wednesday started with two roadside bombs hitting Damascus' suburb of Jaramana in swift succession and killed one person and injured another five. The blasts took place near a school in the area.
Minutes later, two other roadside bombs rattled the parking lot of the main courthouse in Damascus, leaving great material damages and injuries among passersby.
Later in the evening, three blasts targeted Syrian Interior Ministry in Damascus' district of Kafar Souseh and killed at least five people.
One of the blasts near the ministry was caused by a booby- trapped car rigged with 200 kg of explosives, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that the other two were caused by explosive devices.
The death and injury toll includes civilians and members of the ministry, the statement said, adding that the first two blasts were caused by explosive devices and went off, while the third was caused by a booby-trapped car rigged with 200 kg of explosives.
It said that specialized authorities are analyzing the evidences from the blast site, adding that such acts will not dissuade it from cutting the roots of terrorism with the help of the Syrian army.
The Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar and other top officers are all fine and unscathed.
Meanwhile, pro-government Ekhbaria TV aired footage of an inside part of the ministry with broken walls and smashed windows.
A couple of hours after the ministry's blasts, an explosive device, believed to be affixed under a communal bus, went off in Damascus' district of Mazzeh 86, leaving three people killed and scores of others injured.
The blasts' pace and chaotic acts have dramatically surged after the United States and its regional and international allies recognized the exiled opposition coalition as the sole "legitimate representative" of the Syrian people.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the Syrian Opposition Council was now "inclusive enough" to be granted the elevated status, which paved the way for increasing U.S. aid to the organization.
The U.S. move followed similar steps taken by Britain, France and several Arab countries, which recognized the rebel council shortly after it was created at a meeting of opposition representatives in Qatar last month.
The U.S. recognition of the council also came hours before the meeting of the so-called "Friends of Syria meeting" on Wednesday in Marrakech, Morocco, during which representatives from 114 countries and regions and 15 NGOs decided to recognize the newly formed opposition coalition as representative of the Syrians.
The "Friends of Syria" also promised more help to the exiled opposition.
After the U.S recognition, Syria's SANA news agency commented that Washington's recognition of the Syria opposition is a "new step that confirms the United States' hypocrisy and the double- standard policy."
SANA said Obama's remarks pose an "encroachment upon the Syrian people's right to determine its future and choose its representatives," adding that such a step would "hinder all international efforts aiming to solve the crisis in Syria through dialogue."
For his side, Haitham Mana'a, a prominent opposition leader in exile and head of the oppositional National Coordination Body (NCB) , reportedly said that the Friends of Syria meeting is a mere " party for recognition and support." He said that the international group must be more serious in dealing with the Syrian opposition in all its spectra, not only those who are proponents to the West.
It worth mentioning that the U.S. and their allies have excluded the Syrian opposition inside Syria from support.
Rajaa al-Naser, a leading member of the NCB, told Xinhua that forming a government in exile aims to falter the efforts by the international representative to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, and to slam the political process.
He said that the armed groups on ground are not united, adding that the crisis in Syria will not end by the collapse of the al- Assad administration but will carry on if the violence continued to intensify.
