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Syrian
prime minister survives Damascus bombing, six die
Syria's
prime minister survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on
Monday, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's
capital.
29
April, 2013
Six
people were killed in the blast, the British-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights said. Previous rebel attacks on government targets
included a December bombing which wounded Assad's interior minister.
U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing, which he
described as a "terrorist attack."
As
prime minister, Wael al-Halki wields little power but the attack
highlighted the rebels' growing ability to target symbols of Assad's
authority in a civil war that, according to the U.N., has cost more
than 70,000 lives.
Assad
picked Halki in August to replace Riyadh Hijab, who defected and
escaped to neighboring Jordan just weeks after a bombing killed four
of the president's top security advisers.
Monday's
blast shook the Mezze district soon after 9 a.m. (2.00 a.m. EDT),
sending thick black smoke into the sky. The Observatory said one man
accompanying Halki was killed as well as five passers-by.
State
television showed firemen hosing down the charred and mangled remains
of a car. Close by was a large white bus, its windows blown out and
its seats gutted by fire. Glass and debris were scattered across
several lanes of a main road.
"Dr.
Wael al-Halki is well and not hurt at all," state television
said.
It
later broadcast footage of Halki, who appeared composed and
unruffled, chairing what it said was an economic committee.
In
comments released by the state news agency SANA but not shown on
television, Halki was quoted as condemning the attack as a sign of
"bankruptcy and failure of the terrorist groups", a
reference to the rebels battling to overthrow Assad.
Mezze
is part of a shrinking "Square of Security" in central
Damascus, where many government and military institutions are based
and where senior officials live.
Sheltered
for nearly two years from the destruction ravaging much of the rest
of Syria, it has been sucked into violence as rebel forces based to
the east of the capital launch mortar attacks and carry out bombings
in the center.
CHEMICAL
WEAPONS
Assad
has lost control of large areas of northern and eastern Syria, faces
a growing challenge in the southern province of Deraa, and is
battling rebels in many cities.
But
his forces have been waging powerful ground offensives, backed by
artillery and air strikes, against rebel-held territory around the
capital and near the central city of Homs which links Damascus to the
heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect in the mountains
overlooking the Mediterranean.
As
part of that counter-offensive, Assad's forces probably used chemical
weapons, the United States and Britain have said.
However,
the trans-Atlantic allies, whose 2003 invasion of Iraq to overthrow
Saddam Hussein was based in part on flawed intelligence about an
Iraqi program of weapons of mass destruction, have been cautious in
their accusations.
Ban
said on Monday that investigators have been gathering and analyzing
available information on alleged chemical attacks in Syria, but full
access to the war-torn country is essential for a "credible and
comprehensive inquiry.
Assad's
government has refused to give the U.N. inspection team the kind of
unfettered access inside Syria that Ban is demanding. As a result,
the team has yet to deploy to Syria.
A
Western diplomat said British officials had shown the head of the
U.N. inspection team, Ake Sellstrom of Sweden, evidence on which
London based its assertion that there was "limited but growing"
evidence of chemical weapons use - possibly the nerve agent sarin -
by Syrian troops.
But
Sellstrom found the evidence inconclusive, said the diplomat,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
President
Barack Obama repeated U.S. concerns about Syrian chemical weapons in
a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday,
the White House said, adding that the two leaders agreed to stay in
contact.
The
United States is trying to determine the facts around alleged Syrian
use of chemical weapons. Last week U.S. officials said they had
"varying degrees of confidence" that such weapons were used
in Syria, which if proven with certainty could trigger unspecified
U.S. action against the Syrian government.
Despite
congressional pressure to do more to help the rebels, the U.S.
president has made clear he is in no rush to intervene on the basis
of preliminary evidence.
A
U.N. team of experts has been waiting to travel to Syria to gather
field evidence, but has yet to win agreement from Syrian authorities
who want it to investigate only government accusations of chemical
weapon use by rebels in Aleppo province.
Russia,
which has criticized Western and Gulf Arab support for the anti-Assad
fighters, said that attempts by Western countries to expand the U.N.
inquiry to cover rebel accusations of Syrian government use of
chemicals in Homs and Damascus mounted to a pretext to intervene in
the civil war.
The
U.N. said in February that around 70,000 people had been killed in
Syria's conflict. Since then activists have reported daily death
tolls of between 100 and 200.
Five
million people have fled their homes, including 1.4 million refugees
in nearby countries, and financial losses are estimated at many tens
of billions of dollars.
The
Beirut-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
estimates that 400,000 houses have been completely destroyed, 300,000
partially destroyed and a further half million have suffered some
kind of structural damage.
