Car bomb in Damascus shatters feeble Syria cease-fire

A handout picture released by the Syrian Revolution General Commission shows Syrians inspecting the site of a car bomb attack in the Daf Shawk district of Damascus on Oct. 26. At least five people were killed and 32 wounded in a car bomb attack in southern Damascus, Syrian state television said, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said children were among the wounded.

By Reuters

A powerful car bomb exploded in Damascus on Friday, inflicting many casualties and buffeting a shaky temporary truce in the Syrian conflict on the occasion of a Muslim religious holiday.

State television said the "terrorist car bomb" had killed five people and wounded 32, according to "preliminary figures."

Opposition activists said the bomb had gone off near a makeshift children's playground built for the Eid al-Adha holiday in the southern Daf al-Shok district of the capital.

Fighting erupted around Syria earlier as both sides violated the Eid al-Adha cease-fire arranged by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but violence was far less intense than usual.

The Syrian military said it had responded to attacks by insurgents on army positions, in line with its announcement  Thursday that would cease military activity during the four-day holiday but would react to rebel actions.

Brahimi's cease-fire appeal had won widespread international support, including from Russia, China and Iran, President Bashar al-Assad's main foreign allies.

61 killed in Syria as truce collapses in several areas: NGO

Beirut: 

At least 61 people were killed on Friday in Syria on the first day of a truce to mark the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The Britain-based watchdog which said the truce collapsed in several regions gave an early evening death toll of 61 dead -- 21 civilians, 27 soldiers and 13 rebels.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman reported casualties from fighting and car bombings in various parts of Syria, including in and around Damascus, in the second city Aleppo, in the central city of Homs and near the Wadi Deif military base in the northwest province of Idlib.

Ten soldiers and four rebels were killed at Wadi Deif, where fierce clashes have raged since insurgents overran the nearby strategic town of Maaret al-Numan on October 9, cutting off a key army supply route along the Aleppo-Damascus highway.

Fighters from the jihadist Al-Nusra Front, which categorically rejected any truce, have been participating in the fighting at Wadi Daif, according to the Observatory. Three soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in a car bomb attack in the southern city of Daraa, according to the watchdog, while Syrian state television said a car bombing in Damascus killed five people and wounded 32.

No casualties were reported from a third car bomb explosion in the southern Damascus district of Tadamun, where a car bombing had killed six people two days before.

Al-Nosra Front has claimed the majority of deadly car bombings and suicide attacks over the course of the conflict.

The Syrian government and main rebel Free Syrian Army had agreed to observe the truce brokered by UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but both sides had pledged to respond if attacked.

(www.ndtv.com)