A deadly blast rocked a Damascus suburb, killing two security forces members, among 10 people killed across Syria yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The bloodshed came as people took to the streets to demonstrate against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following weekly Muslim prayers, the main day of protests in the 15-month uprising.
An AFP photographer said the blast in the capital’s Qudssaya neighborhood tore a car to shreds and damaged a military bus — the reported target — as well as nearby residential buildings.
Elsewhere, an explosion in front of a police station in the northwestern city of Idlib killed five people, including another two members of the security forces, the Britain-based Observatory said.
“It was a powerful explosion that destroyed the facade of the building,” said the watchdog, which also reported that a civilian was shot dead at Kfar Nebbol in the same province.
In other violence, troops battled to take back the rebel bastion of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs, shelling the district, the Observatory said.
Khaldiyeh in the north of the city has been pounded intermittently since yesterday morning “at a rate of five shells a minute,” the Observatory said.
In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the uprising, the head of a rebel “brigade” was killed at Basr al-Sham and a sniper shot dead a civilian in Mahajja, the Observatory said.
At least 58 people were killed on Thursday across Syria, where the crisis could “spiral out of control,” UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council, unless more pressure is put on al-Assad.
Anti-regime activists had called for fresh demonstrations yesterday, under the slogan “Revolutionaries and traders, hand in hand until victory,” in an attempt to convince the middle classes in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo to join the uprising that erupted in mid-March last year.
People emerged from mosques to demonstrate in Kfar Zita, in the central Hama Province, chanting: “We don’t want peace. We want bullets and Kalashnikovs.”
A convoy of UN monitors trying to reach the central village of al-Kubeir on Thursday to investigate the slaughter of at least 55 civilians in the small Sunni farming area was shot at, the Observatory said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2