Taxi bomb hits Syrian capital as UN envoy pushes for cease-fire

The bomb killed at least 13 people in Damascus. In another part of the capital, UN envoy?Lakhdar Brahimi met with President Bashar Assad.

By Jamal Halaby,?Associated Press / October 21, 2012

A Syrian man looks at a damaged cars at the site after a car bomb attack in Bab Touma neighborhood, a popular shopping district largely inhabited by Syria's Christian minority in Damascus, Syria, Sunday. A taxi rigged with explosives blew up outside a police station in the Syrian capital Sunday, killing at least 13 people even as the U.N. envoy to the nation's crisis was visiting Damascus to push his call for a cease-fire in talks with President Bashar Assad.

Bassem Tellawi/AP

Enlarge

A taxi rigged with explosives blew up outside a police station in the Syrian capital Sunday, killing at least 13 people even as the UN envoy to the nation's crisis was visiting Damascus to push his call for a cease-fire in talks with President Bashar Assad.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

The SANA state news agency said 29 people were also wounded in the blast in the Bab Touma neighborhood, a popular shopping district largely inhabited by?Syria's?Christian minority.

Once largely immune to the violence that has swept over?Syria?since the anti-Assad revolt began in March 2011, Damascus has become a frequent target of bombings in recent months. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's blast, but Islamist groups fighting alongside the rebels have sometimes claimed responsibility for bomb attacks against security targets in the capital.

Two officials speaking from the scene said the taxi blew up 50 yards from Bab Touma's main police station. He insisted on anonymity because he was not allowed to brief the media.

SANA put the death toll at 13, while the anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 people were killed in the blast.

Envoy meets Syrian president

In another part of the capital, UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met with Assad as part of his push for a cease-fire between rebels and government forces for the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins Oct. 26.

Brahimi told reporters following a closed-door meeting that he met earlier with Syrian opposition groups inside and outside the country to discuss his truce plan. He said he received "promises" but not a "commitment" from them to honor the cease-fire.

He noted that he "found an overwhelming response" from Assad's opponents to his cease-fire plan and that "all of them have said that it's a good idea which they support."

He declined to reveal Assad's response to his plan, viewed as a preliminary step toward a larger deal.

But SANA said Assad assured Brahimi that he supported his effort, but did not say whether he committed to a truce.

"The president said he is open to any sincere effort to find a political solution to the crisis on the basis of respecting the Syrian sovereignty and rejecting foreign interference," SANA said.

It said Assad also stressed that a political solution must be "based on the principle of halting terrorism, a commitment from the countries involved in supporting, arming, and harboring terrorists in?Syria?to stop doing such acts."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/cLk5eHAmjtU/Taxi-bomb-hits-Syrian-capital-as-UN-envoy-pushes-for-cease-fire

hcm loretta lynn gene kelly zoe saldana zooey deschanel and joseph gordon levitt debra messing ayaan hirsi ali