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Bombings Hit Syria as Obama Urges Caution on U.S. Role Bombings Hit Syria as Obama Urges Caution on U.S. Role
(35 minutes later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Deadly bombings hit the center of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and a major Syria border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday as President Obama strongly suggested that he would not be rushed into military entanglements in the Syria conflict, where evidence of chemical weapons use has raised the possibility of an American intervention. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Deadly bombings hit the center of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and a major Syria border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday as President Obama strongly suggested that he would not be rushed into military entanglements in the Syria conflict over incomplete reports of chemical weapons use.
The blasts in Syria, which killed at least 13 people in Damascus and at least five at the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northern Syria, came a day after an attempted assassination of Syria’s prime minister in central Damascus from a bomb aimed at his motorcade. The prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, survived the attack but at least five others including a bodyguard were killed, Syria’s state news media reported.The blasts in Syria, which killed at least 13 people in Damascus and at least five at the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northern Syria, came a day after an attempted assassination of Syria’s prime minister in central Damascus from a bomb aimed at his motorcade. The prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, survived the attack but at least five others including a bodyguard were killed, Syria’s state news media reported.
In Washington, Mr. Obama told reporters at a wide-ranging news conference that despite an American intelligence assessment last week that there was evidence that chemical weapons had been used in Syria, the evidence had not yet surpassed his “red line” for a change of American strategy regarding the conflict, in which President Bashar al-Assad is fighting to stay in power against an increasingly violent insurgency. In a news conference in Washington, Mr. Obama said that despite an American intelligence assessment last week that there was evidence that chemical weapons had been used in Syria, the evidence had not yet surpassed his “red line” for a change of American strategy regarding the conflict, in which President Bashar al-Assad is fighting an increasingly violent insurgency.
“We don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them; we don’t have chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened,” Mr. Obama said. “And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.” Mr. Obama said his previously stated position that the proven use of chemical munitions in Syria would be a “game changer” was not the position of the United States alone, and said there were still serious shortcomings in the intelligence.
“What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them; we don’t have chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened,” Mr. Obama said. “And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.”
Mr. Obama also said that “if we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves in the position where we can’t mobilize the international community to support what we do.”
If investigations prove that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in the conflict, Mr. Obama said, “we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us.”If investigations prove that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in the conflict, Mr. Obama said, “we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us.”
Mr. Obama’s remarks came against a backdrop of increasing pressure on the administration to be more precise about what would constitute the basis for an American intervention in Syria if chemical munitions were used, which he has called a “game changer.” The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to civilians of the two-year-old Syrian conflict and has called on Mr. Assad to resign in a negotiated political transition. The Obama administration has furnished nonlethal aid to the insurgents but has resisted requests to arm them.
While some members of Congress have said the threshold for more active American involvement has been crossed, the administration has resisted. There also appears to be little American public appetite for a military engagement in Syria, according to a new New York Times/CBS News poll. Mr. Obama’s remarks on Tuesday came against a backdrop of increasing pressure on the administration to be more precise about what would constitute the basis for an American intervention in Syria if chemical munitions were used.
The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to civilians of the two-year-old Syrian conflict and has called on Mr. Assad to resign in a negotiated political transition. The Obama administration has provided nonlethal aid to the insurgents but has resisted requests to provide them with weapons. While some members of Congress have said the threshold for more active American involvement had been crossed, the administration has resisted. There also appears to be little American public appetite for a military engagement in Syria, according to a new New York Times/CBS News poll.
The violence in Syria on Tuesday at first centered around a booby-trapped car in Damascus that exploded near the back door of a building that used to house the Ministry of Interior, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization, based in Britain, with a network of local antigovernment activists in Syria. State television said the dead were all civilians. The United Nations has authorized a 15-member panel of experts to travel to Syria to investigate the suspected chemical munitions use. Their trip has been stalled over a dispute with the Syrian government, which wants to limit the scope of their inquiry.
In footage on state television, fire trucks and ambulances could be heard in the background as a camera panned over a scene of debris, bloodstains on the ground and dented cars with broken windows. A thick spiraling cloud of back smoke engulfed the area as passers-by spoke on their cellphones and looked around in disbelief. At the United Nations on Tuesday, the Syrian ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told a news conference that his government had been “cooperating intensively” on an investigation that would examine whether chemical weapons had been used in Khan al-Asal, near the northern city of Aleppo, on March 19.
It was not clear if any individual was targeted, and no group immediately claimed responsibility. The government blamed its armed opponents, while the opposition Local Coordinating Committees blamed the government, as has often happened in a war in which information is a weapon and each side seeks to demonize the other. But he said that the United Nations had failed to provide sufficient evidence on suspected use in Homs and outside Damascus for the Syrian government to judge whether an inquiry into those incidents was merited. Britain and France have asserted that such evidence exists.
Later at the Bab al-Hawa crossing into Turkey, Syrian activists and residents on the Turkish side said Syrian warplanes bombed refugee encampments on the Syrian side. The Syrian Observatory uploaded video on the Internet to corroborate the assertion, showing the aftermath of an explosion. In the Turkish town of Reyhanli, near the crossing, residents said they believed at least five people on the Syrian side were killed and a flock of sheep destroyed. The Syrian government has contended that rebels used a form of chlorine gas from a factory they had captured in Khan al-Asal, while the Syrian government is accused by its enemies of using sarin gas, a nerve agent known to have been stockpiled by Mr. Assad’s military.
An array of disparate groups are seeking to topple Mr. Assad, including the blacklisted Al Nusra Front, which recently pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and has claimed responsibility for bombings in the capital and other attacks that have killed civilians. Other rebel groups say they reject such tactics. Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said requests to investigate had come from Syria, Britain and France and they would be done in the order received.
The government has been on a campaign recently to convince the United States and its allies to slacken their support for the uprising, arguing that it empowers violent extremist Islamist groups. The opposition contends that groups like Nusra gained prominence only after rebel fighters seeking to topple Assad family rule were unable to win significant military support from the West, while extremists had willing donors. “There cannot be a partial investigation,” Mr. Nesirky said, adding that the United Nations investigators “need to be able to enter without conditions and without exceptions.”
As the violent civil war in Syria enters its third year and Mr. Assad’s opponents try to inch closer to Damascus, the city has witnessed increasingly frequent explosions. These have included powerful bombings that have targeted government officials, others whose targets appear random and occasional rebel mortars that sail into the center. Mr. Jafaari said Syria had sought to rid the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction and would not use chemical weapons against its own people. Such promises have been met with increasing skepticism given that the death toll has exceeded 70,000 since the once peaceful anti-government uprising first started in March 2011.
Far more devastating has been the relentless bombardment of rebel-held suburbs — and other areas around the country — by security forces using artillery and airstrikes. More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict. The news conference came amid new allegations and counter-allegations about the suspected use of chemical weapons in the northwestern town of Saraqib, near Idlib, on Monday. Mr. Jaafari said rebels had spread white powder from plastic bags, “most probably” chemical materials. Many people were affected and the victims “manifested signs similar to those during the use of chemical weapons,” the ambassador said.
Though the government tightly controls security in the center of the capital, the bombings have fueled a growing sense of insecurity that has prompted anger among Damascus residents who blame rebels for attacking civilians and the state for its inability to stop the violence. Opposition groups said military aircraft had dropped balloons containing an unspecified chemical on Saraqib, causing severe respiratory problems for at least 10 people in the town.
In Marjeh Square on Tuesday, a man interviewed on state TV screamed, “We were just showing up to work, haven’t you had enough of Syrians’ blood, Qaradawi?” The violence in Syria on Tuesday at first centered around a booby-trapped car in Damascus that activist groups said had exploded near the former headquarters of the Interior Ministry. State television said the dead were all civilians.
He was referring to a Sunni Muslim imam based in Qatar, one of the countries that backs the opposition. Early in the Syrian uprising, which began as a peaceful protest movement but turned to armed opposition after security forces fired on demonstrators, a prominent adviser to Mr. Assad blamed the imam for inciting Syrian Sunnis against the government. Later at the Bab al-Hawa crossing into Turkey, which is controlled by Syrian insurgents, anti-Assad activists and residents on the Turkish side said Syrian warplanes bombed refugee encampments on the Syrian side.
The violence has been accompanied by an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis affecting Syrian refugees. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a reporting network in Syria, uploaded video on the Internet to corroborate the assertion, showing the aftermath of an explosion. In the Turkish town of Reyhanli, near the crossing, residents said they believed at least five people on the Syrian side had been killed and a flock of sheep destroyed.
Oxfam, a British charity, warned in a report on Tuesday that the 6.8 million internally displaced Syrians need immediate assistance and that the funds currently available are not sufficient to deal with a crisis of such magnitude. In Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant organization that backs Mr. Assad in the conflict, emphatically reasserted that support in an emotional televised speech, in which he warned Syrians that foreign supporters of the insurgency want to reduce Syria to a “hungry, frail, war-torn country with no control over its oil, borders, sea.”
The United Nations has received only half of the money that was pledged, according to Oxfam. Leaders of the Syrian insurgency, drawn mostly from the country’s Sunni majority, have severely criticized Mr. Nasrallah, accusing him of backing a bloodthirsty government obsessed with preserving the dominance of Mr. Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, at all costs.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard from Beirut, Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul and and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard from Beirut, Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul and and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.