BEIRUT (Reuters/AFP) - Bombs planted by rebels exploded at a school building occupied by pro-government militias in Damascus on Tuesday and world leaders weighed Syria’s deepening crisis at a UN General Assembly meeting, but without proposals to resolve it.
Vastly outgunned, rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad have increasingly relied on home-made bombs to target their opponents, striving to level the playing field against state forces using fighter jets, artillery and tanks.
“At exactly 9:35 am, seven improvised devices were set off in two explosions to target a school used for weekly planning meetings between shabbiha militia and security officers,” said Abu Moaz, a leader of Ansar al-Islam, one of the rebel groups in the 18-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebels said they hoped their attack would kill top-level security officials - as they did with a major Damascus bombing in July - but gave no casualty count. State media said at least seven people were wounded, with minor damage to buildings.
Nationwide, at least 85 people - 43 civilians, 26 soldiers and 16 rebels - were killed in shelling, clashes and other violence, according to the Observatory, which gathers its information from a network of activists, medical sources and lawyers on the ground.
Activists say that more than 27,000 people have been killed in the Syrian uprising, but the geo-strategic rivalries of world and regional powers have wrought deadlock over how to solve the conflict. The West and Gulf Arab states have sided with the opposition, while Iran, Russia and China have backed Assad.
Qatar has called on world powers to prepare a “Plan B” for Syria within weeks and set up a no-fly zone to provide a safe haven inside the country in case international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi fails to make headway.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said he believed that Arab and European countries would be ready to take part, despite their public reluctance to commit the forces needed for such a mission.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, US President Barack Obama accused Iran of helping to keep a dictatorship in power in Syria.
“Just as it restricts the rights of its own people, the Iranian government props up a dictator in Damascus and supports terrorist groups abroad,” Obama said in a reference to Assad. “We again declare that the regime of Bashar al-Assad must come to an end so that the suffering of the Syrian people can stop, and a new dawn can begin.”
Iraq’s cabinet on Tuesday decided to provide humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria and launch a relief campaign via the Iraqi Red Crescent, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement. The cabinet decided “to provide humanitarian aid and begin a popular campaign of humanitarian relief for the brotherly people of Syria, via the Iraqi Red Crescent,” Dabbagh said, without providing further details.
Syria’s conflict, once a peaceful protest movement, has evolved into a civil war that the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said was “extremely bad and getting worse.” He said that the stalemate in the country could soon “find an opening”, without elaborating.
Even the capital Damascus has become a battleground between Assad’s forces and opposition fighters.
UN investigators say Syrian government forces have committed human rights violations “on an alarming scale”, but have also listed multiple killings and kidnappings by armed rebels trying to oust Assad after 12 years in power.