The Syrian capital Damascus was hit by two simultaneous bomb attacks today, killing as many as 40 civilians and military personnel as an Arab League peace mission was due to start work.
Aftermath of Damascus bombings
By Richard Spencer,
Middle East Correspondent
10:20AM GMT 23 Dec 2011
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Within minutes of the blasts Syrian authorities said preliminary investigations had found the attacks bore the "blueprint" of al-Qaeda, arousing ridicule from opposition groups and Syrians using social media.
State media reported 40 people had been killed.
The state news agency SANA said that suicide bombers with "booby-trapped" cars had caused the explosions at the state security building and an intelligence building.
"Several soldiers and a large number of civilians were killed in the two attacks carried out by suicide bombers in vehicles packed with explosives against bases of State Security and another branch of the security services," state television said.
They are the first major bomb attacks in the capital since the start of the uprising against the rule of President Bashir al-Assad in March, although the Free Syrian Army, a rebel band made up of defectors, attacked an air intelligence barracks last month.
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Residents of the city reported that their apartments shook and windows were broken. "Unreal my apartment was totally shaking," Jean-Pierre Duthion, a French businessman, said on Twitter.
Gunfire could be heard in the immediate aftermath of the explosions. Television footage showed medics wrapping bodies in blankets and smoke rising from the blackened buildings. It also showed the charred remains of two cars involved.
The attacks appeared timed to coincide with the arrival on Wednesday of the advance guard of an Arab League monitoring mission, which is supposed to oversee implementation of a peace plan agreed in October.
The Syrian authorities are keen to show that it is facing an armed and Islamist terrorist insurgency rather than, as opposition activists says, an originally peaceful series of demonstrations that took on a violent hue later in response to the government's repression.
On social media, activists were already accusing the government of being behind the blasts, intending to prevent the observers from beginning their mission and to persuade them of the authorities' case.
The explosions went off within minutes of each other, shaking residents around the city, in the morning Friday, a weekend day.
They took place in the upscale Kfar Sousa district, and state TV said they targeted the state security building and a nearby intelligence building in the neighbourhood.
Residents in Damascus reported hearing gunfire and ambulance sires for few minutes following the explosions.
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown waged since March by the Syrian regime against protesters.
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