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Tag: car bomb
18 Killed In Syria Blasts Include 11 Children

18 Killed In Syria Blasts Include 11 Children

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT — A pair of car bombs in Syria’s central Hama province killed 18 people, including 11 children, the state media reported Friday.

The bombings were the latest in a series of attacks by both sides that have caused escalating numbers of civilian casualties.

The recent attacks fit a pattern that has become familiar after more than three years of conflict in Syria.

Rebels fighting to oust the government of President Bashar Assad use car bombs and mortars to target areas under government control. Government forces, meantime, use aerial bombardment and artillery to strike rebel-held zones in the northern city of Aleppo and elsewhere.

A pro-opposition monitoring group reported at least 15 dead in the two car bombings in Hama province, the Associated Press reported.

Most of the casualties were in the town of Jidreen, west of Hama, the provincial capital, Syrian state media said. A suicide bomber detonated a booby-trapped car in Jidreen, killing 17, including 11 children, and injuring 50 others, the Syrian press reported. The other car bomb attack took place in al-Hmairi, west of the provincial capital, killing one and injuring others, the official news agency said.

State media showed photographs of bloodied, bandaged survivors, including children, receiving treatment in hospital beds.

No one took immediate responsibility for the car bomb attacks. Rebels linked to Al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for past car bombings in government-controlled districts.

The government blamed “terrorists” for the car bomb strikes, using the official term for anti-government rebels.

AFP Photo

Car Bomb, Mortar Rounds Kill At Least 50 People In Syria

Car Bomb, Mortar Rounds Kill At Least 50 People In Syria

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT — At least 50 people were killed and scores injured Tuesday in Syria during a series of mortar and car-bomb attacks targeting pro-government districts in Damascus and the central city of Homs, the state media and a pro-opposition monitor reported.

The deadliest strike was a car bombing near a busy intersection in war-ravaged Homs that left at least 36 people dead and 85 injured, Syria’s official news agency reported. Some reports indicated that two car bombs may have been involved and that the death toll reached 45.

The assault marked the latest in a series of stepped-up attacks on civilian targets in Homs, which has long been a key battleground in the Syrian conflict, now in its fourth year. A number of neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble in the conflict. Earlier this month, 25 people were killed in a pair of car bombings.

In recent months, Syrian forces have recaptured much of Homs from rebels and cornered remaining opposition fighters into a few enclaves, including the heart of the Old City. The government says that hundreds of rebels have surrendered and negotiations are continuing in a bid to convince remaining fighters in the Old Town and elsewhere to lay down their arms or evacuate. Officials have talked about life in Homs getting back to normal, but gunfire and shelling remain daily occurrences.

Tuesday’s wave of attacks comes a day after President Bashar Assad announced that he would seek a third seven-year term in elections scheduled for June 3. Opposition activists have dismissed the elections as a farce. There was no known direct link between the attacks and the announcement of Assad’s candidacy.

The government blamed all of Tuesday’s attacks on “terrorists,” its standard term for armed rebels fighting to overthrow the government.

In the capital, authorities reported that 14 civilians, mostly students, were killed and 86 injured when two mortar shells struck an Islamic school in the Shaghour district in the Old City. The district is firmly under government control and is patrolled by pro-Assad militiamen. Tuesday’s strike was among the deadliest mortar attacks reported in Damascus.

Rebels based in the capital’s outskirts frequently fire mortar rounds into the city and government-controlled suburbs. Syrian authorities call the attacks indiscriminate. The mortar strikes have escalated in recent weeks as government forces have moved to oust rebels from outlying areas of the capital.

©afp.com / Joseph Eid

High-Ranking Egyptian Police Official Killed By Car Bomb

High-Ranking Egyptian Police Official Killed By Car Bomb

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times

CAIRO — In the latest strike by suspected militants against a senior Egyptian security official, a police brigadier general was killed Wednesday by a bomb planted under his car, state media reported.

The attack in a western suburb of Cairo again demonstrated extremists’ ability to target high-ranking officials, often by pinpointing the location of their homes or learning details of their daily routines so as to stage ambushes. Wednesday’s bomb went off as the general was setting out for work.

Two police conscripts were also hurt in the blast, officials said.

The dead officer was later identified as Brig. Gen. Ahmed Zaki. He was the fifth police general killed so far this year.

Egypt has been hit by a wave of attacks, most targeting police, soldiers or security installations, in the nearly 10 months since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was toppled by the army following mass protests demanding his removal.

The military-backed interim government has engaged in a sweeping crackdown on supporters of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization late last year.

The government is currently weighing two measures that would broaden the scope of existing terrorism laws — a move that has drawn criticism from human rights groups who say they could be used as a pretext to arrest political opponents. Egyptian authorities have already used a range of measures to suppress dissent, not only among Islamists but among some secular liberals as well.

Egypt is due to hold presidential elections a little over a month from now. Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Sisi, who led the coup against Morsi, is expected to win the May 26-27 vote.

Although the United States expressed misgivings about the ousting of a democratically elected leader and the arrest or killing of thousands of his backers, the Obama administration is poised to resume at least some of the military aid that was suspended after Morsi was deposed.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that Egypt would receive 10 Apache helicopters, meant to be used in the fight against Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

AFP Photo/Khales Desouki

High-Ranking Egyptian Police Official Killed By Car Bomb

High-Ranking Egyptian Police Official Killed By Car Bomb

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times

CAIRO — In the latest strike by suspected militants against a senior Egyptian security official, a police brigadier general was killed by a bomb planted under his car on Wednesday, state media reported.

The attack in a western suburb of Cairo, again demonstrated extremists’ ability to target high-ranking officials, often by pinpointing the location of their homes or learning details of their daily routines so as to stage ambushes. Wednesday’s bomb went off as the general was setting out for work.

Two police conscripts were also hurt in the blast, officials said.

Egypt has been hit by a wave of attacks, most targeting police, soldiers or security installations, in the nearly 10 months since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was toppled by the army following mass protests demanding his removal.

The military-backed interim government has engaged in a sweeping crackdown on supporters of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization late last year.

The government is currently weighing two measures that would broaden the scope of existing terrorism laws — a move that has drawn criticism from human rights groups who say they could be used as a pretext to arrest political opponents. Egyptian authorities have already used a range of measures to suppress dissent, not only among Islamists but among some secular liberals as well.

Egypt is due to hold presidential elections a little over a month from now. Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Sisi, who led the coup against Morsi, is expected to win the he May 26-27 vote.

Although the United States expressed misgivings about the ousting of a democratically elected leader and the arrest or killing of thousands of his backers, the Obama administration is poised to resume at least some of the military aid that was suspended after Morsi was deposed.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that Egypt would receive 10 Apache helicopters, meant to be used in the fight against Islamist militants in the Sinai peninsula.

Image grab from Al-Masriya