TWIN suicide car bomb blasts ripped through an upscale Damascus district, targeting heavily guarded intelligence buildings and killing at least 44 people, Syrian authorities said.

Forty people have been confirmed killed and around 100 wounded in twin suicide car bombings in Damascus, the Syrian government said today.

A team of Arab observers headed to Syria today as neighbouring Turkey condemned President Bashar Assad for turning his country into a “bloodbath” after the regime killed more than 200 people this week alone.

Security forces pursuing anti-government activists and army defectors shot dead at least 47 people in Syria, pushing the toll for two days of violence to nearly 150 even as the regime prepared to allow in foreign monitors under an Arab League plan aimed at stopping the bloodshed.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has issued a new law under which anyone found guilty of distributing weapons for “terrorist acts” would be sentenced to death, a state-run news agency has said.