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Syria says prime minister survives Damascus bomb attack
People stand near debris and a damaged vehicle after an explosion at al-Mezze neighbourhood in Damascus April 29, 2013, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA. REUTERS/SANA/Handout
(Reuters) - Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, state media and activists said, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital.
The explosion shook the Mezze neighborhood shortly after 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET), sending a plume of thick black smoke into the sky, Internet footage posted by opposition activists showed.
The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources across Syria, said one person accompanying the prime minister had been killed. State television reported casualties, but gave no details.
"The terrorist explosion in al-Mezze was an attempt to target the convoy of the prime minister. Doctor Wael al-Halki is well and not hurt at all," state television said.
Syria's Al-Ikhbariya television later broadcast footage of Halki, who looked and sounded composed and unruffled, chairing an economic committee at the prime ministry.
Mezze is part of a shrinking "Square of Security" in central Damascus, where many government and military institutions are based and where senior Syrian officials live.
Sheltered for nearly two years from the bloodshed and destruction ravaging much of the rest of Syria, it has been slowly sucked into violence as rebel forces based to the east of the capital launch mortar attacks and carry out bombings in the once-insulated city center.
COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
Assad has lost control of large areas of northern and eastern Syria, faces a growing challenge in the southern province of Deraa, and is battling rebels in many cities.
But his forces have been waging powerful ground offensives, backed by artillery and air strikes, against rebel-held territory around the capital and near the central city of Homs which links Damascus to the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean.
Most rebel fighters are from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority.
On Sunday, activists said rebels were battling troops near a complex linked to Syria's alleged chemical weapons program - the Scientific Studies and Research Centre on the foothills of Qasioun Mountain in the northern Barzeh district of Damascus.
The United States said last week Assad's forces had probably used chemical arms in the conflict and congressional pressure has mounted on President Barack Obama to do more to help the rebels. But Obama has made clear he is in no rush to intervene on the basis of evidence he said was still preliminary.
The United Nations says more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war. Five million people have fled their homes, including 1.4 million refugees in nearby countries, and war losses are estimated at many tens of billions of dollars.
The Beirut-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia estimates that 400,000 houses have been completely destroyed, 300,000 partially destroyed and a further half million suffered some kind of structural damage.
Syrian Prime Minister escapes assassination attempt
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has survived an assassination attempt on Monday, escaping from a blast that targeted his convoy in Damascus.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi's convoy was targeted as it drove through the streets of Damascus Photo: AFP/Getty Images
By AFP
10:39AM BST 29 Apr 2013
One of his bodyguards was killed in the attack which left a second bodyguard and his driver seriously injured, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.
"The terrorist explosion in Mazzeh was an attempt to target the prime minister's convoy and Dr Wael al-Halqi was unharmed," state television reported.
The Observatory reported that a car bomb targeted Mr Halqi's convoy as it passed through the Mazzeh district of Damascus.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Observatory, said that the bomb appeared to have been detonated from a distance.
State television said the explosion happened near a public garden and a school in the neighbourhood, a well-secured district that is home to embassies, government buildings, intelligence facilities and several political figures.
"I was walking in the street when suddenly there was a very powerful explosion and I saw a car burning and people running," a young man told AFP at the scene.
"I heard glass shattering," he added, saying he had tried to hide for fear a second explosion would follow.
Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast, including a bus burned out by the explosion. The windshields of other cars nearby were also blown out.
State television al-Ikhbariya broadcast footage of Mr Halqi attending a government meeting, but without indicating whether the images were from after the attack or not.
Mazzeh is an upmarket neighbourhood in western Damascus, home to a number of senior regime figures.
Mr Halqi was appointed prime minister in August 2012 after his predecessor Riad Hijab defected to the opposition.
The last major attack in Damascus was on April 9, when a massive blast killed at least 15 people in the centre of the capital.
Some of the groups fighting with the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's regime have resorted increasingly to the use of car and suicide bombs to target senior government figures.
In July 2012, a suicide bomb attack killed Syria's defence minister and deputy defence minister and left the country's interior minister seriously wounded.
