Blast in Syria kills 25 on eve of Arab League meeting

BEIRUT — At least 25 people were killed and 46 wounded Friday morning when a bomb exploded in the Syrian capital, marking the second large-scale attack in the city in two weeks and escalating pressure on the Arab League as it prepares to decide whether to extend a monitoring mission in the turbulent country.

State news media reported that a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at a busy intersection in the central Midan neighborhood of Damascus at a time when many people would have been heading to Friday prayers. The perpetrator was not immediately clear: As in the previous attack, officials blamed terrorists, while dissidents said the authorities themselves were responsible. Neither side cited evidence to support its claims.

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An explosion rocked the Syrian capital Friday, two weeks after authorities said twin blasts in Damascus killed dozens. State media said up to 25 people died in the attack, which the Interior Minister blamed on a suicide bomber. (Jan. 6)

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Syrian state TV shows video said to be aftermath of bomb attack. (Jan. 6)

Midan has been the site of numerous protests in the course of a nine-month uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The military crackdown in response to the revolt has killed at least 5,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, and Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that almost 300 civilians have been killed since Arab League monitors arrived nearly two weeks ago to oversee implementation of an agreement to halt deadly force against protesters.

Friday’s attack comes at a decisive moment for the 22-member Arab body, which is set to meet Sunday to decide whether to continue the mission in Syria — where roughly 100 monitors have deployed to the flash-point cities of Homs, Daraa and Hama — or to withdraw the team and perhaps refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

“I fear that the violence is going to escalate, especially in the absence of any credible dynamic to stop it,” said Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Institution in Doha, Qatar. “The Arab League mission, I believe, has failed, and is not likely to lead to the implementation of the agreement.”

Qatar’s prime minister, Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani, told reporters in New York on Wednesday that “mistakes” had been made during the mission and that he had discussed with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon the possibility of “technical help” from the world body. Ban said Friday that “the U.N. stands ready to provide technical assistance,” including training, to the Arab League monitors.

Ausama Monajed, a spokesman for the prominent Syrian National Council opposition group, said he believed that Friday’s attack was staged by Assad’s government to support its assertion that the unrest in Syria stems from the actions of extremist groups and armed gangs.

“Of course the Arab League should move to the Security Council,” Monajed said. “The violence needs to stop by whatever means necessary.”

But because a strong Security Council resolution would probably draw vetoes from Russia and China, he added, the Arab League should make clear that it would also consider intervening militarily without U.N. backing.

Protests took place across Syria on Friday, despite further violence that activists said killed 19 people. Although demonstrators say they are still targeted by snipers if they attend protests, most heavy weapons and uniformed soldiers have been withdrawn from cities in the past two weeks, seemingly in response to the presence of Arab League monitors.