National and International news: explosions

quarta-feira, 26 de setembro de 2012

2 explosions near army headquarters in Syria

ALBERT AJIDAMASCUS, Syria -- Two massive explosions targeting the army command headquarters rocked the heart of the Syrian capital on Wednesday, setting off clashes and a huge fire inside the building in the heavily guarded area, state-run media and residents said.

Information Minister Omran Zoubi said there were no casualties from the blasts, the latest to hit the city as the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime intensifies. But the explosioins appear to show the deep reach of the rebels determined to topple the regime.

Witnesses said the explosions were followed by heavy gunfire, suggesting security forces clashed with gunmen in the area.

Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, said the explosions struck just before 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) near the landmark Omayyad square. The explosions were heard several miles (kilometers) away and shattered the windows of the Dama Rose hotel and other nearby buildings.

The army command building was in flames, sending huge columns of thick black smoke that hung over Damascus for several hours following the blasts.

"The explosions shook the entire apartment and the windows shattered," said a resident of the nearby Abu Rummaneh district who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. "It was like a quake."

Zoubi, the information minister, said the blasts were caused by two "large, highly explosive" improvised devices, one of which may have been placed "on the inner side of the fence" around the grounds of the army command building. He said the damage inflicted was material and there were no casualties.

"I can confirm that all our comrades in the military command and defense ministry are fine," he told Syrian TV, which is located near the site of the explosion, in a telephone call.

"Everything is normal," he said. "There was a terrorist act, perhaps near a significant location, yes, this is true, but they failed as usual to achieve their goals."

Ambulances were rushed to the site as police sealed off the area to traffic and journalists. Traffic in other areas snarled as checkpoints were set up, blocking access to the capital from the suburbs.

Syria's unrest began in March 2011 when protests calling for political change met a violent government crackdown. Many in the opposition have since taken up arms as the conflict morphed into a civil war that activists say has killed nearly 30,000 people. Over the past few months, the rebels have increasingly targeted security sites and symbols of regime power in a bid to turn the tide in the fighting.

On July 18, rebels penetrated the heart of Syria's power elite, detonating a bomb inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus that killed three top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defense minister. Other large blasts have targeted the headquarters of security agencies in the capital, killing scores of people this year.

On Tuesday, several bombs went off inside a Damascus school that activists said was being used by regime forces as a security headquarters. Several people were wounded.

Syria's conflict was the focus of attention as world leaders gathered at the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting in New York this week.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded international action to stop the war in Syria, telling a somber gathering of world leaders Tuesday that the 18-month conflict had become "a regional calamity with global ramifications."

Ban, declaring that the situation in Syria is getting worse every day, called the conflict a serious and growing threat to international peace and security that requires attention from the deeply divided U.N. Security Council.

That appears highly unlikely, however, at least in the near future.

Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad to end the violence and enter negotiations on a political transition, leaving the U.N.'s most powerful body paralyzed in what some diplomats say is the worst crisis since the U.S.-Soviet standoff during the Cold War.

In sharp contrast to the U.N. chief, President Barack Obama pledged U.S. support for Syrians trying to oust Assad - "a dictator who massacres his own people."

---
GET THE LATEST NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS FROM ABCNEWS.COM

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

u.s. & world news

View the original article here

segunda-feira, 23 de maio de 2011

Deadly explosions kill 16 across Iraq

BAGHDAD -- A wave of early morning explosions in and around the Iraqi capital killed 16 people Sunday and for the third time this month, Iraqi security forces were the main target.

Insurgents have been hammering the security forces in an attempt to undermine Iraqis' confidence in the ability of their police and military to take over from American forces scheduled to leave the country by the end of this year.

At least nine of those killed were police officers, underscoring the risks of the job.

"The aim of these attacks is to send a message to the locals: 'If the security people cannot protect themselves then how can they protect you?"' said Iraqi police Capt. Majid Mohammed Amin, who joined the police in 2000 and has since survived two roadside bombings.

The worst single attack took place near the city of Taji, 12 miles (20 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. It was an almost textbook insurgent ambush. First a roadside bomb targeting an American military convoy exploded. When police arrived on the scene, a suicide bomber walked into the crowd and blew himself up, police and hospital officials said.

Seven police and three civilians were killed and 19 people, including 15 policemen, were injured, the officials said.

Earlier, at least 10 bombs exploded around the capital at the start of the workweek.

At about 7 a.m. a car bomb in a parking lot in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood exploded, injuring five people and damaging nearby cars.

"We woke up to a big blast nearby and the glass windows in front of the house were smashed. My young brother was injured by glass," said Namiq Khazal, a 30-year-old Sadr City resident who lives a short distance from where one of the blasts went off.

Minutes later, also in Sadr City, a bomb hidden in a pile of garbage exploded, killing one person and wounding five more. Then five minutes later another roadside bomb, this time targeting a police patrol, exploded; three policemen and four bystanders were injured in that blast.

In the southwestern neighborhood of Bayaa, five explosions went off in rapid succession, killing five people, including two policemen, and injuring another 15, including six policemen, police and hospital officials said.

In the upscale Karradah neighborhood, two roadside bombs injured 14 people, including six policemen, police and hospital officials said.

The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

It was the third day this month in which security personnel suffered serious casualties. Last week, 27 people were killed outside a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, and earlier this month 20 police officers in the southern city of Hillah died when a suicide bomber plowed his vehicle into a police compound.

Security officials have also been targeted in an almost daily barrage of assassination attempts involving sticky bombs attached to the undercarriage of vehicles, roadside bombs and gunmen using weapons fixed with silencers.

About 46,000 American troops remain in bases around Iraq, and they are slated to leave the country by Dec. 31. But as the deadline approaches, many Iraqis are worried about the ability of their own forces to protect the country from the ever-present threat of bombs and shootings.

In the northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday, police found the body of a man believed to be in his late 20s, said the neighborhood police chief, Col. Anwar Qadir. The man's hands were tied behind his back and he was killed execution-style with a bullet to the back of his head.

---
Associated Press writer Mazin Yahya in Baghdad and Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah contributed to this report.

u.s. & world news

View the original article here