This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/world/middleeast/car-bomb-in-damascus-kills-dozens-opposition-says.html

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Car Bomb in Damascus Kills Dozens, Opposition Says Car Bomb in Damascus Kills Dozens, Opposition Says
(about 4 hours later)
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — A powerful car bomb exploded in the heart of Damascus on Thursday near the headquarters of Syria President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling party, and antigovernment activists said nearly four dozen people were killed, mainly civilians but also some members of the security forces. TRIPOLI, Lebanon — At least three car bombs roiled Damascus on Thursday, including a powerful blast near the downtown headquarters of President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling party and the Russian Embassy that witnesses said shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. Antigovernment activists described the bombings as some of the worst to hit the Syrian capital in the nearly two-year-old conflict and said at least 72 people had been killed, mostly civilians.
The violence in the center of the Syrian capital coincided with renewed talks among Mr. Assad’s adversaries, who met in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the terms on which the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the main Syrian rebel group, was prepared to talk about a negotiated settlement to the nearly two-year-old conflict. The group also denounced the car bombing and other mayhem in Syria that had left civilians dead, saying in a statement that it “holds the Assad regime responsible for them.” Witnesses, including people who had been living near the ruling party headquarters in the Mazraa district, said the bombings shattered what little confidence they had left that Mr. Assad’s forces could preserve at least some semblance of normalcy in Damascus, where armed insurgents have attacked with increasing brazenness.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad group based in Britain that has a network of contacts in Syria, reported that at least 42 people were killed by the bomb, which exploded in the neighborhood of Mazraa. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The main umbrella opposition group seeking to depose Mr. Assad condemned the bombings as it convened a meeting in Cairo. It was unclear whether the blasts had been timed to the Cairo meeting.
Syrian state television said two children were wounded, while Al Ikhbariya, a pro-government television channel, showed footage of two bodies and body parts in a park. One resident of the area said her windows were knocked out by the blast. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency described the blasts as the work of armed terrorist groups, its standard terminology for the insurgency. SANA said the victims included children and students and that hundreds of people had been wounded. It said the Foreign Ministry had sent letters to Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and the Security Council, urging that the body “adopt a firm stance which proves its commitment to combating terrorism regardless of its timing or place.”
The area where the bomb exploded was near the headquarters of Mr. Assad’s ruling Baath Party and the Russian Embassy. State television and the Syrian Observatory also said mortar shells exploded near the Syrian Army General Command in the center of the capital, but there were no reported casualties. Some witnesses contacted in Damascus reported insurgent attacks and explosions elsewhere in the city on Thursday, including mortar rounds aimed at the Defense Ministry’s headquarters, central Umayyad Square and a park in a heavily protected affluent neighborhood of Abu Roumana. Earlier this week insurgent fighters lobbed mortar rounds that damaged one of the presidential palaces and killed a soccer player practicing inside a stadium.
The meeting in Cairo was being held mainly to discuss recent proposals by the council’s leader, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, to talk with representatives of the Assad government. Participants made it clear that at least so far, Mr. Khatib was speaking only for himself. “It is the first time to feel we are living in a war condition,” said a 30-year-old Mazraa resident named Anas, who lived with his family in a house behind the headquarters of Mr. Assad’s Baath Party. “Today I saw what was happening in Baghdad in my city, Damascus. This is not the Damascus I know.”
“Per his own words it is not a formal initiative,” said Yasser Tabbara, a legal adviser to the coalition. “It is an idea he had, and now he is seeking some sort of a sanction for it, through the general assembly of the coalition.” Mr. Tabbara added, “It is no secret to anyone that the fact that Sheik Khatib took this unilateral initiative or unilateral approach was a problem.” He said the Mazraa bombing “was similar to an earthquake — my house’s windows were broken.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad group based in Britain that has a network of contacts in Syria, reported that at least 59 people were killed by the Mazraa district bomb, which the group described as a booby-trapped car next to a military checkpoint. It said at least 16 of the dead were members of the security forces.
It said at least 13 other people in Damascus were killed — 10 of them in the security forces — in two other car bombings near checkpoints in the Barzeh district, in the northeast part of the capital.
At the meeting in Cairo, Mr. Assad’s foes discussed the terms under which the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the main Syrian umbrella group for the opposition, was prepared to talk about a negotiated settlement to the conflict, which has claimed an estimated 70,000 lives.
The group denounced the car bombings and other mayhem that had killed civilians in Damascus, saying in a statement that it “holds the Assad regime responsible for them.”
The meeting was being held mainly to discuss recent proposals by the council’s leader, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, to talk with representatives of the Assad government. Participants made it clear that at least so far, Mr. Khatib was speaking only for himself.
“Per his own words it is not a formal initiative,” said Yasser Tabbara, a legal adviser to the coalition. “It is an idea he had, and now he is seeking some sort of a sanction for it, through the General Assembly of the coalition.” Mr. Tabbara added, “It is no secret to anyone that the fact that Sheik Khatib took this unilateral initiative or unilateral approach was a problem.”
Despite reports from fighters on the ground and journalists near the front lines that the battle is in a rough stalemate, Mr. Tabbara insisted that in the council, “the balance of power on the ground is shifting toward the armed opposition, and we need to capitalize on this politically.”Despite reports from fighters on the ground and journalists near the front lines that the battle is in a rough stalemate, Mr. Tabbara insisted that in the council, “the balance of power on the ground is shifting toward the armed opposition, and we need to capitalize on this politically.”
Mr. Tabbara said the council was seeking to condition Mr. Khatib’s proposal for dialogue in a way that reflected its assessment of the shifting balance of power. “What is being discussed right now is basically taking what Sheik Khatib had proposed and injecting it into that general context,” he said. “I think that is what is being hashed out right now.”Mr. Tabbara said the council was seeking to condition Mr. Khatib’s proposal for dialogue in a way that reflected its assessment of the shifting balance of power. “What is being discussed right now is basically taking what Sheik Khatib had proposed and injecting it into that general context,” he said. “I think that is what is being hashed out right now.”
On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory said scores of civilian hostages from Shiite villages had been released in Idlib. It is still unknown which armed group took them. Syrian rebels have been entrenched for months in suburbs south and east of Damascus, but they have been unable to push far into the center, although they strike the area with occasional mortar shells and increasingly frequent car bombs.
The strikes in Damascus were the latest to extend to the heart of the Syrian capital, and reports this week indicated that rebel shells had reached new areas. Such indiscriminate attacks, however, have risked killing passers-by, exposing the rebels to charges that they are careless with civilian life and property. Many Damascus residents have remained undecided in the civil war and fear that their ancient city will be ravaged like Aleppo and other urban centers to the north.
State media and opposition activists reported on Wednesday that mortar rounds had hit the Tishreen sports stadium in the downtown neighborhood of Baramkeh. The state news agency, SANA, said the explosion killed an athlete from the soccer team Al Wathba, based in Homs, as he was practicing. At the same time, the government has decimated pro-rebel suburbs with airstrikes and artillery, leaving vast areas depopulated and traumatized.
Government forces hit a rebel command center in a suburb east of the capital on Wednesday, injuring a founder of the Liwaa al-Islam Brigade, Sheik Zahran Alloush, a brigade representative, said in a statement.

Anne Barnard reported from Tripoli and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Hwaida Saad and Hania Mourtada from Tripoli, David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh from Cairo, Alan Cowell from London, Christine Hauser from New York and an employee of The New York Times from Damascus.

On Tuesday, activists reported that up to seven mortar rounds had been fired by fighters of the Free Syrian Army toward Mr. Assad’s Tishreen Palace in Damascus.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, and it was not known whether Mr. Assad was there at the time. The palace, surrounded by a park, is in a wealthy area that has largely been insulated from the insurgency and it lies less than a mile from the main presidential palace.
Syrian rebels are entrenched in suburbs south and east of the capital, but they have been unable to push far into the center, although they strike the area with occasional mortar shells and increasingly frequent car bombs.
Such indiscriminate attacks, however, risk killing passers-by, exposing the rebels to charges that they are careless with civilian life and property. Many Damascus residents are undecided in the civil war and fear that their ancient city will be ravaged like Aleppo and other urban centers to the north.
At the same time, the government has decimated pro-rebel suburbs with airstrikes and artillery, leaving vast areas depopulated or terrorized.
Fighting also continued for control of the main civilian airport in Aleppo on Wednesday.

Reporting was contributed by David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh from Cairo, Alan Cowell from London, and Christine Hauser and Rick Gladstone from New York.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 21, 2013Correction: February 21, 2013

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified the country that the bylined reporters were filing from. It is Lebanon, not Libya.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified the country that the bylined reporters were filing from. It is Lebanon, not Libya.