Bombs kill 1 in Damascus
Two bombs exploded Wednesday near the center of Damascus, killing one and wounding over two dozen people, Syria’s state news agency reported. SANA said a 10-year-old boy was killed and 28 people wounded, some seriously, in Wednesday’s attack, when bombs went off in Khaled Bin Walid street and the nearby Bab Mesalla square. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Bab Mesalla explosion was near a police station and came from rocket fire. It said the blast left casualties but did not have figures on dead or wounded.
Associated Press
Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies are showing renewed confidence that the momentum in the civil war is shifting in their favor, due in part to the rapid rise of al-Qaida-linked extremists among the rebels and the world’s reluctance to take forceful action to intervene in the fighting.
His invigorated regime has gone on the offensive — both on the ground and in its portrayal of the conflict as a choice between Assad and the extremists.
Several factors appear to have convinced Assad he can weather the storm: Two years into the uprising against his family’s iron rule, his regime remains firmly entrenched in Damascus, the defection rate from the military has dwindled, and key international supporters Russia and China remain solidly on his side.
Moreover, the regime has benefited from the fallout created by audio distributed last month in which the head of the extremist Jabhat al-Nusra group, one of the most powerful and effective rebel groups in Syria, pledged allegiance to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
There are signs of Assad’s renewed confidence.
After dropping largely out of sight following a speech at the Opera House in central Damascus in January, Assad has appeared in two TV interviews in the past month. His wife, Asma, appeared in public in March for the first time in months, surrounded by women and children for a function honoring mothers.
“I can say, without exaggeration, that the situation in Syria now is better than it was at the beginning of the crisis,” Assad said in an interview with state-run broadcaster Al-Ikhbariya on April 17.
“With time, people became more aware of the dangers of what was happening. … They started to gain a better understanding of the real Syria we used to live in and realized the value of the safety, security and harmony, which we used to enjoy,” he added.
On Wednesday, a smiling Assad made another rare public appearance, visiting a Damascus power station just a day after a bombing in the capital and two days after his prime minister escapade an assassination attempt.
Since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011, Assad’s regime has tried to portray the movement as being driven by what it called terrorists and foreign-backed mercenaries. The government responded with a brutal military crackdown that led many to take up arms to fight back. Gradually, the rebellion turned into an armed insurgency, drawing in radicalized elements and foreign fighters from other countries.
Assad’s regime has seized on the recording of Nusra Front’s leader pledging allegiance to al-Qaida as proof it is fighting terrorists, prompting some members of the Syrian opposition to claim the audio was faked by the government to tarnish their movement.
“The regime is trying, and succeeding unfortunately, in brainwashing some segments of society into thinking that they are their protectors and whoever follows will massacre them,” said opposition figure Kamal Labwani.
Allegations that the regime used chemical weapons have not triggered an international response, despite President Barack Obama’s earlier assertion that use of such weapons would be a “game-changer” and a “red line.”
Obama said Tuesday that the evidence available does not yet merit the quick use of U.S. military power.
Ammar Abdulhamid, a Washington-based Syrian pro-democracy activist and director of the Tharwa Foundation, said that if groups such as al-Nusra increase their profile in Syria, there will be a greater willingness among some Western leaders to listen to Assad’s argument again.
“The mantra of ‘Either us or the extremists’ is slowly but surely regaining some of its popularity and relevance in decision-making circles in the West,” he said.
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