No Eid ceasefire for Syria: Car bomb rocks Damascus, fighting rages at checkpoints (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

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Published time: October 26, 2012 08:29
Edited time: October 26, 2012 21:50

A handout picture released by the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) shows Syrians inspecting the site of a car bomb attack in the Daf Shawk district of Damascus on October 26, 2012 (AFP Photo/ HO/ Syrian Revolution General Comission) (VIDEO by Alikhbaria Syria from youtube.com)

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At least five people were killed and 32 others wounded after a car bomb exploded in Damascus, according to preliminary reports by Syrian state media. The violence comes despite an official ceasefire honoring the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Syria's opposition coordination committees claim some 70 people died in the blast.

The bomb reportedly detonated near a children’s playground in Daf al-Shok, a Sunni residential neighborhood in a a southern district of the Syrian capital. Kids are feared to be among the casualties.

Extensive damage to nearby buildings was reported. State news agency SANA said "terrorists" were responsible for the blast.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also says 11 Syrian soldiers were wounded in a separate car bomb attack on a checkpoint in Daraa, a city in the country's southwest.

Earlier in the day, the human rights watchdog claimed that rebels had laid siege to a military base one kilometer from the highway, and that government forces had opened fire in a nearby village.

“Violent clashes started around 10:30 am (9:30 am Paris time) around the Wadi Deif base. The army responded by bombing the neighbouring village of Deir Sharqi. It is the first violation of the ceasefire,” Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

A handout picture released by the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) shows Syrians inspecting the site of a car bomb attack in the Daf Shawk district of Damascus on October 26, 2012 (AFP Photo/ HO / Syrian Revolution General Comission)

Syria's military said a number of checkpoints came under attack of "terrorists" Friday, including those in Deir Ezzor, Douma, Homs and Dara, as well as in several other locations.

The General Command said "the Armed Forces are firing back and confronting the armed terrorist groups," as quoted by SANA. The Command considered the attacks as "clear violation" of the announcement truce.

A tenuous truce was called into effect hours earlier on Friday morning following an agreement between the Assad government and the rebels to observe a four-day ceasefire in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi proposed the truce after visiting Syria earlier this week in the hopes of creating what he called “a political environment where political talks are possible.”

The ceasefire seemed doomed to fail from the start, as both the government and the rebels began setting numerous conditions shortly after the truce was announced.

The Free Syrian Army said that its fighters would not commit to a ceasefire unless detained rebels were released from custody on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Assad government said it reserved the right to retaliate against any violence by opposition forces during the truce. Damascus also said it would respond to any attempts to smuggle weapons across Syria’s borders, and would take measures to prevent ‘terrorists’ from entering the country.

A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syrians inspecting the site of a car bomb attack in the Daf Shawk district of Damascus on October 26, 2012 (AFP Photo / HO / Sana)

Comments (61)

johnk 01.11.2012 20:45

johnk (unregistered) wrote in #3
This is why a ceasefire was a bad idea, the terrorist Assad government were never going to honor it. The Free Syrian Army has a responsibility to protect Syrian citizens and topple the regime, and must wipe out the Assad scum. Trolls trying to hide under my display name. You can tell it is fake because it is unregistered.

Undo

Simon (unregistered) 28.10.2012 00:44

Captain Obvious (unregistered) wrote in #14
the story you are not hearing ....

No we hear plenty of stories from you. That's all they are.
Complete baloney.

Everything the so called rebels have been doing fits into what they have
done all along. Never agree to ceasefires or attempts at peaceful resoultions
from non Nato countries.

Undo

Captain Obvious (unregistered) 27.10.2012 11:35

Syrian (unregistered) wrote in #8
These f#cking FSA terrorists won't stop until they completely destroy the country. The Syrian government should never have agreed to a ceasefire, the terrorists have had enough chances - time to anihilate them! Kill the terrorists...long live Bashar Al Assad....long live Syria! ******** ************A majority of Syrians do not like living underneath mukhabarat. They held peaceful unarmed demonstrations asking that mukhabarat immunity to be ended. At first, they simply wanted the mukhabarat to be punished for torturing children in daraa. Assad killed 20,000 unarmed demonstrators. He called them armed gangs and terrorists in SANA news but they were really just unarmed Syrians asking for justice. They decided to defend themselves rather than accept injustice and formed the FSA. The central point of the revolution is for rule of law. The rebels want government to obey laws and Assad wants to keep impunity.

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