A government official said a car bomb killed 10 people on the outskirts of the city. TV footage showed firemen fighting the blaze amid wide destruction after parts of balconies fell on cars parked on a residential street. As smoke billowed, a woman was seen running away with children from the area of the blast and electricity cables dangled from poles. Activists said the air raids were launched both before and after the car bomb and were still under way.
Monday was supposed to be the fourth and final day of a UN-backed cease-fire to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest periods on the Muslim calendar. But the truce was violated almost as soon as it was supposed to take effect on Friday and violence continued unabated over the holiday weekend. Activists said at least 150 people were killed Sunday, a toll similar to previous daily casualty tolls.
Monday was supposed to be the fourth and final day of a UN-backed cease-fire to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest periods on the Muslim calendar.
But the truce was violated almost as soon as it was supposed to take effect on Friday and violence continued unabated over the holiday weekend. Activists said at least 150 people were killed Sunday, a toll similar to previous daily casualty tolls.
The army warned late Sunday night that it will strike “remnants of terrorists with an iron fist” after they “repeatedly violated the cease-fire.” The regime of President Bashar Assad often refers to those waging the uprising as “terrorists.” Mohammed Saeed, an activist based in the Damascus suburb of Douma, said there were at least 15 air raids on the suburbs early Monday. The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes carried out at least six air raids on Damascus suburbs including Rankous and Harasta. It said there are intense clashes in those areas as troops try to regain control from the rebels.
“Members of the Free Syrian Army are shooting at the planes without succeeding in shooting them down,” said Saeed referring to the main rebel group fighting Assad’s forces. “The air raids are unusual in their intensity, although we have seen worse days.” A Syrian official said the car bomb in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana also wounded 41 people and heavily damaged shops and apartments in the area inhabited by Christians and members of the Druse minority sect.
The Observatory also reported clashes and shelling in other parts of the country including the northwestern province of Idlib that borders Turkey, where it said warplanes carried out 11 air raids on several villages.
Amateur videos showed warplanes in the skies, then giant mushroom clouds of smoke after the missiles hit. On Friday, at least 15 people were killed in a Damascus car bomb.
In Turkey, state-run Anadolu news agency said the Turkish forces fired artillery in response to a stray shell fired from Syria that landed across the northern border. The shell landed some 300 meters away from the Turkish border village of Besaslan. No one was injured, but a power line was destroyed. With the unraveling of the cease-fire, it’s unclear what the international community can do next. The holiday truce marked the first attempt in six months to reduce the bloodshed in Syria.
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