Twin Car Bombs Rock Damascus

A pair of car bombs killed 34 people in Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. A pair of vehicles packed with explosives exploded in the suburb of Jaramana in a parking lot as people were arriving for work near commercial buildings.

The United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos also accused the Syrian government of firing mortar bombs near the Jordan border to stop refugees who were fleeing the civil war, according to Reuters.

Here's the latest information on the Syrian civil war.

* The car bombs were planted in a Christian and Druse area, resulting in six commercial buildings being damaged and injuring 83 people in addition to those killed. There have been conflicting numbers of deaths, as a report from the Observatory for Human Rights claimed the death toll was 29.

* Suicide bombings in downtown Damascus have usually included the homes of wealthy Syrians, army officers, security officials, and regime officials.

* No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

* Amos spoke out against the mortar attacks against refugees, according to Reuters, saying that "we need the agreement by all those involved in the conflict to ensure they will not in any way bomb or shell or fight (refugees)."

* Amos said that despite a call to care for the 2.5 million internally displaced Syrian people, only 50 percent of that need had been funded.

* Food has been supplied to 1.5 million people through the World Food Programme and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Amos said. "We would like to be able to increase that to 2.5 million people but we do not have the capacity through the partners we are able to use," she said according to Reuters.

* On Tuesday, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland was asked whether if reports of Russia flying currency into Syria to support the regime would soften sanctions. Nuland noted that "we've been very clear, both publicly and privately, how we feel about any country, Russia included, supporting the Assad regime in any way. And we will continue to make those points. And it doesn't simply go to the question of military support; it also goes for any kind of economic or political support."

* Nuland was also asked if Russia and the U.S. were discussing a post-Assad government and said she had no details of that discussion, referring instead to the Friends of the Syrian People group of countries for that conversation.

Shawn Humphrey is a former contributor to The Flint Journal and an amateur Africanist, focusing his personal studies on human rights and political issues on the continent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/twin-car-bombs-rock-damascus-223200293.html

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