Blasts in Central Syria City of Homs Kill 25
The Associated Press reports that two car bombs in the central city of Homs targeted to an pro-government Alawite district have killed 25 people. Suicide bomb attacks have become the trademark of extremist groups looking to expand their control over parts of the country controlled by the government and other rebel groups.
“The blasts hit a commercial street inhabited mostly by members of President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect in the central city, where government forces have been imposing a heavy siege on rebel-controlled districts,” the wire says.
“State news agency SANA said one car blew up near a sweet shop in a busy street and about half an hour later another car exploded about 100 meters (yards) away “in order to inflict the biggest numbers of casualties among citizens.
“SANA said the wounded included its photographer in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, adding that the blasts went off in the Karm el-Loz neighborhood. It said the explosion that struck a busy street also wounded 107 people. Syrian TV showed several shops and cars on fire. Bloodied people could be seen being carried on stretchers into ambulances.”
Hezbollah Confident in Assad as West Resigned to Syria Stalemate
Reuters reports on Hezbollah’s assertions that the West must accept that Assad will go on “ruling Syria after fighting rebels to a standstill: a ‘reality’ to which his foreign enemies seem increasingly resigned.
“Echoing recent bullish talk coming out of Damascus, Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite militia that is supporting Assad in combat, told Reuters that the president retained popular support among many of Syria’s diverse religious communities and would shortly be re-elected.”
“There is a practical Syrian reality that the West should deal with, not with its wishes and dreams, which proved to be false,” he said in an interview, adding that the U.S. and its allies “were in disarray and lacked a coherent policy on Syria, reflecting the quandary that Western officials acknowledge they face.”
Pope Condemns Killing of Jesuit Priest in Syria
International outrage over the Monday shooting death of Francis Van Der Lugt, a decades-long fixture and symbol of peace in Syria, continued as Pope Francis condemned the assassination, reports the Guardian. Van der Lugt was killed in his monastery in the besieged city of Homs.
The Pope referred to the killing of his “Jesuit brother” at the end of his general audience on Wednesday: “His brutal slaying filled me with profound pain and made me think again about the many people who are suffering and dying in that martyred country, my beloved Syria.”
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