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

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Remembering A Great American: Edwin Fancher, 1923-2023

Norman Mailer, seated, Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, founders of The Village Voice

If you are lucky in your life, you come to know one or two people who made you who you are other than your parents who gave you the extraordinary gift of life. Edwin Fancher, who it is my sad duty to inform you died last Wednesday in his apartment on Gramercy Park at the age of 100, is one such person in my life. He was one of the three founders of The Village Voice, the Greenwich Village weekly that became known as the nation’s first alternative newspaper. The Voice, and he, were so much more than that.

Keep reading...Show less
How Is That Whole 'Law And Order' Thing Working Out For You, Republicans?

Former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer

One of the great ironies – and there are more than a few – in the case in Georgia against Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants is the law being used against them: The Georgia RICO, or Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act. The original RICO Act, passed by Congress in 1970, was meant to make it easier for the Department of Justice to go after crimes committed by the Mafia and drug dealers. The first time the Georgia RICO law was used after it was passed in 1980 was in a prosecution of the so-called Dixie Mafia, a group of white criminals in the South who engaged in crimes of moving stolen goods and liquor and drug dealing.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}