Bombs kill 28 Syrians as siege escalates

Two suicide car bombers struck Syrian security compounds in the northern city of Aleppo yesterday, killing 28 people officials said, while in besieged Homs, opposition areas endured another day of bombardment by President Bashar al-Assad’s troops.

The Aleppo bombings were the worst violence to hit the country’s commercial hub since the uprising against the Assad family’s 42-year dynastic rule began 11 months ago.

Mangled, bloodied bodies and severed limbs lay on the pathway outside the military and security service buildings that were targeted — as shown in live footage on Syrian television, which has consistently portrayed the revolt against Assad as the work of foreign-backed “terrorists”.

The bombings took place as Assad’s forces grow more ferocious in operations to crush the uprising. Some opposition figures said the government was manipulating the incidents to discredit them.

Yesterday saw more unrest, with activists reporting that security forces opened fire in Latakia, in the town of Dael in Deraa province, and elsewhere to break up demonstrations.

In Homs, where a week of bombardments has killed dozens of civilians, four people were killed in the opposition-held neighbourhoods of Baba Amro and Bab Sebaa, the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Troops also opened fire as worshippers left a mosque.

Activists in Homs said shelling started up again in the morning and they feared a big push was imminent to storm residential areas that has come to symbolise the plight of those opposing the Assad government.

“The carnage in Homs continues and the martyrdom of the Syrian people continues,” French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. “Not only are we seeing an army that is massacring its own people, but for the Syrian army hospitals and doctors have become systematic targets for repression.”

But the unrelenting violence only highlighted the difficulties that Western and Arab powers faced in trying to resolve the crisis in a country with a well-armed military and a key place in the Middle East’s precarious strategic balance.

Bolstered by Russian support, Assad has ignored appeals from the US, Turkey, Europeans, fellow Arabs and other governments to step down.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which suspended a monitoring mission in Syria last month because of the violence, will discuss a proposal to send a joint UN-Arab mission to Syria when they meet tomorrow, a League official said. French foreign minister Alain Juppe will meet his Russian counterpart on Thursday to discuss Syria, Valero said.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, added her voice to calls for Moscow to support a UN resolution demanding Assad halt the crackdown. But Russia, which is keen to counter US influence in the region, says no one should interfere.

Reuters