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Bombings in Damascus herald beginnings of a bloody new stage of Syrian insurgency
Suicide bombers attacked two key secret police headquarters in Damascus on Saturday, killing 27 and leaving nearly 100 wounded, according to Syrian government sources. The bombings appeared to mark a dangerous new escalation in Syria's crisis, just weeks after the regime brutally crushed a rebel stronghold in the city of Homs.

Government spokesmen were quick to blame Islamist terrorists for the attacks, which they said mainly killed and injured civilians. Many anti-regime activists believe similar bloody bombings since January have been staged to give the government an excuse to crack down.

The explosions struck the aviation intelligence department - the most hated branch of Syria's police state - and the criminal security department, at around 7.30 am.

The aftermath, shown in gruesome detail on Syrian state television, was pools of blood, body parts strewn across streets, and wrecked and burnt vehicles. The front of one building collapsed.

"We heard a huge explosion. At that moment the doors in our house were blown out, even though we were some distance from the blast," one elderly man, with a bandage wrapped round his head, told Syrian television, which also showed what it said was the charred corpse of a terrorist in a burnt vehicle.
Posted by: tipper 2012-03-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=341159