UN condemns Syria blasts

The 15-member Security Council on Thursday "condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks" and called on all sides to "immediately and comprehensively" implement the six-point peace plan, "in particular to cease all violence."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also strongly condemned the attacks, while the US called them "reprehensible" and called on the Syrian regime to implement the UN and Arab League-brokered peace plan.

Russia, however, called the blasts the work of outsiders. "At the very least, some of our partners are taking practical steps aimed at detonating the situation in Syria in both the direct and indirect sense of the word," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

In addition to the 55 people killed, 372 were wounded in the two blasts, a day after a bomb attack on a UN convoy.

Damascus said the blasts were a sign that foreign-backed terrorists were at work and called on the UN Security Council to "take measures against countries, groups and news agencies that are practicing and encouraging terrorism."

Television footage earlier in the day showed burnt and destroyed cars; some were said to contain human remains. Reports from witnesses said the blasts created a wasteland and sent plumes of smoke into the sky. The attack occurred during the morning rush hour.

Frequent car bombs

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in London, said the explosions occurred at a base for intelligence services, adding that one of the blasts was a car bomb. State TV said both blasts were car bombs.

Damascus has been the target of bombings many times during the revolt against the regime of President Bashar Assad, which has been under way for 14 months.

On Wednesday, observers from the United Nations in Syria to oversee an increasingly unheeded cease-fire agreement were the target of a bomb attack in Daraa. None of the UN observers were injured, while 10 Syrian soldiers traveling with the convoy were hurt.

The head of the UN observer mission, Robert Mood, visited the site of one of the blasts in Damascus on Thursday.

"This is yet another example of the suffering brought upon the people of Syria from acts of violence," the Norwegian general said. "We, the world community, are here with the Syrian people, and I call on everyone within and outside Syria to help stop this violence."

mz, slk, ncy/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)