Car bomb hits Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, after a day of twin blasts in Damascus

A car bomb blew up in a residential area of Syria's second city Aleppo on Sunday, a day after two blasts rocked the capital Damascus, the Syrian television channel al-Ikhbariya said.

Opposition sources said the blast hit an area close to a local security office. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the blast targeted the postal service building in the city. Initial death toll reported so far is three people killed and 25 wounded in the blast, the Syrian observatory added.

In Damascus, state news agency SANA said a “terrorist” car bomb exploded between two residential buildings in the Sulaiymaniyah district of Aleppo without giving an immediate report of casualties.

Activists in Aleppo told AFP in Beirut on Skype that the latest blast rocked the city at 2:50 pm (1450 GMT).

Sunday’s blast is the fourth car bomb to hit a major city in Syria, and the second in Aleppo, since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule began a year ago and security forces launched a crackdown.

Activists and the government have traded blame for previous explosions.

On Saturday, twin car bomb blasts killed 27 people and wounded 140 others in the heart of Syria’s capital, the interior ministry said, blaming “terrorists” for the attacks near police and air force headquarters.

Meanwhile, the opposition reported heavy raids by security forces and fighting with rebels in northern and southern Syrian provinces and suburbs of Damascus.

In the capital, as crowds gathered for memorials to victims of Saturday’s car bombs, security forces broke up an opposition march of more than 200 people when protesters began shouting “the people want to topple the regime.”

The phrase has echoed through the wave of Arab uprisings that began last year and has toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

“They were walking through an area in central Damascus, near SANA (the state news agency). At first they shouted slogans against violence and the police didn’t do anything, but as soon as they started to call for regime change the police rushed in and started beating people with canes,” said Rami Abdelrahman, from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Dialogue

The protest, which called for non-violent resistance to the government, had been led by moderate opposition leaders previously tolerated by the government because of their calls for dialogue and rejection of foreign intervention.

Activists said the Sunday march aimed to commemorate the peaceful roots of Syria’s uprising, which has been overshadowed by a growing armed insurgency against state security forces.

Security forces arrested Mohammed Sayyed Rassas, a leader of the National Coordinating Body for Democratic Change (NCB), an opposition group which had visited China and Russia in attempts to promote dialogue between Assad and the opposition.

Most opposition groups have rejected the NCB over its insistence on non-violence and its stance against foreign intervention, arguing the government's fierce crackdown has made arming the uprising inevitable.
Police also briefly arrested Fayyez Sara, who headed the Committee to Revive Civil Society, other activists said.

Syrian government forces have crushed a rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs and have been pounding rebel strongholds in northern Idlib.

“It’s clear that the battle is finishing in the regime’s favor overall,” said a Lebanese official close to Assad’s government.

“On the security level there is a long and difficult struggle for the regime and it is obvious this will take a long time to finish ... We will see many more explosions like those we saw yesterday but in general they have finished off the military fight and they don't have much more to do.”

The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed by security forces in the crackdown on a revolt against four decades of rule by the Assad family.