12 Dead, 48 Hurt in Blast at Funeral of Regime Supporters near Damascus

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
  • W460
  • W460
  • W460

A car bomb killed 12 people at a funeral in the mainly Druze and Christian suburb of Jaramana on the southeastern outskirts of the Syrian capital on Tuesday, state television reported.

"Another 48 people were wounded, many critically, in a terrorist car blast that targeted a funeral procession in Jaramana," it said.

"At around 3 pm (1200 GMT), a funeral procession was making its way to the cemetery, when a car parked on the side of the road exploded, killing and injuring many people," an army official told Agence France Presse.

The funeral was held for two supporters of the government of President Bashar Assad who were killed in a bomb attack on Monday, the Britain-based Observatory said.

The force of the blast completely destroyed the facade of one building, while others suffered heavy damage, an AFP photographer reported.

State media blamed rebel fighters for the bombing, which came amid an intensified bombardment by government troops of eastern districts of Damascus that shelter some of the Free Syrian Army's best organized battalions.

But the opposition Syrian National Council accused Assad's regime of staging the bombing against its own supporters in a bid to divert attention from the killings of hundreds of people during an army assault last week on a largely Sunni Muslim suburb of the capital.

"The regime wants to cover up for its massacres," SNC spokesman George Sabra said, alluding to the deaths in the town of Daraya that sparked an international outcry.

"It also wants to punish residents of Jaramana -- who are of mixed religious backgrounds -- for welcoming people who were displaced from nearby towns." Sabra told AFP by telephone

"The regime's fingerprints are clear," charged Sabra, himself a Christian. "The regime does not want anyone to welcome refugees from other cities. And it wants to turn the revolution... into a bloody civil war fought along sectarian lines."

Some 80 percent of Syrians are Sunni Muslim, while around 10 percent belong to Assad's Alawite community, five percent are Christian, three percent Druze and one percent Ismaili.

The opposition draws much of its support from the Sunni majority, who have borne the brunt of the government's deadly crackdown.

Comments 11
Thumb thepatriot 28 August 2012, 16:26

Who ever those bombs killed it is not acceptable! Trigger a funeral.. that's low and horrible...

Thumb beiruti 28 August 2012, 16:40

This is barbaric. I don't care who does it or who it is done to, it is barbaric and denies the common humanity of us all.

Default-user-icon Ichiro (Guest) 28 August 2012, 16:50

Tfeh, you posted a video to the KKK leader David Duke! I hope you all realize that he's a white (Anglo) supremacist who hates not only Jews but also Arabs (Christian and Muslim), Asians, and Africans. I'm also pro-Palestine, anti-Zionist, but there's limits and standards for what is acceptable. FYI, David Duke was invited to speak to the Syrian gov't a few years back under the auspices of the Baath party in Syria.

Hint: if you want people in the US to support Arab causes, please don't post Neo-Nazi/Ku Klux Klan videos. The enemy of your enemy is not always your friend. Everyone in this country knows who this guy is and he is a hateful remnant of the US South of the Jim Crow/segregation era. Don't fight the racism of Zionism with the racism of American imperial white supremacy.

Missing sikoflebanon 28 August 2012, 17:04

Ask the adepts of the theory of "tawazen al ro3ob" what they think of that

Missing allouchi 28 August 2012, 17:16

war is ugly...

Missing hitech 28 August 2012, 17:38

This is despicable. Those are innocent people.

Thumb beiruti 28 August 2012, 19:17

Beware the enemy you chose.... for to defeat this enemy, you must become him. This is the danger that the FSA faces. It must become more brutal than the Assad Regime in order to beat the Assad Regime at its own game, and then, when it is over, it must forget this ways forever. Can they do this??

Default-user-icon Ezzo (Guest) 28 August 2012, 19:53

Religion will kill everyone. Get out while you can. They (and we) are fighting a futile battle. When we die we rot in the ground, nothing else happens. Wake up.

Missing abraham 28 August 2012, 20:10

As I said before, starting arevolution is very easy,when you don't have an end game how you want this to end, this is teh result.
Guns and bombs will never finish anything these day of age, only the innocent people of our country is going to spill there blood,for people who sold their soul.
As the saying goes < watch for what are you wishing for>
Negotiate, Negotiate

Missing lqu7 29 August 2012, 07:54

This is what Wahabbis want, and this is what Geagea supports. He'll do anything, including the total anihalation of Christians in the East, only to continuously receive his paycheck.

Default-user-icon Hassan (Guest) 29 August 2012, 08:04

Kill each other kill kill kill ... People are so stupid .. Bomb this bomb that .. People are been slaughtered ... Cant wait for the day that Saudi Arabia will fall ... Stop sending weapons ..America is allied with the Saudi regime ... USA ... U....S ...... A..... THE SAME AMERICANS WHO SUPPORTED Mubarak regime 40 years ... Were well aquianted with Kaddafi ...Syria was never American one day while the rest that fell were.. They have called for jihad against the resistance .. Where the hell were you when Gaza had fire thrown at it with the children dying... In the hundreds .. Kill kill kill.. Hail to king Abdallah ..