By Ed Cropley
BEIRUT (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded 20 outside a
central Damascus mosque on Friday, Syrian state television said, in another blow to a peace plan that the United Nations says
President Bashar al-Assad has failed to honour.
The blast ripped through worshippers at the Zain
al-Abideen mosque, which was under heavy security for Friday prayers, often a launchpad for anti-Assad protests, opposition
activists said. State media said security officials were among the wounded.
“We had been trying to go pray in the area
but they stopped us at a checkpoint. Security weren’t letting us in because there are usually protests there,” one
anti-Assad activist told Reuters in neighbouring Lebanon.
“Then we heard the blast. It was so loud and then ambulances
came rushing past us,” the activist added. “I could see a few body parts and pieces of flesh on the road. The front of a
restaurant looked destroyed. People were screaming.”
State television showed images of blackened flesh and a mangled
hand lying on a motorway underpass as soldiers and police cleared the area to make way for ambulance crews.
A resident
who spoke to security officials at the scene said a man had approached soldiers near the mosque and detonated a bomb belt
when challenged. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Earlier, a loud blast was heard in the capital’s al
Sinaa district near a garage used by government buses and pro-Assad militiamen tasked with preventing
demonstrations.
Shopkeepers said the first blast hit a black Mercedes, which caught fire. The driver was wounded but
no one else was hurt.
VIOLENCE “PICKING UP”
The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000
people in the 13-month-old revolt against Assad. Damascus says insurgents have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and
police.
Central Damascus has been spared much of the violence, although Friday’s blasts occurred less than a week
after a car bomb near an Iranian cultural centre in the capital.
“The action is picking up and it seems the (rebels)
and Assad’s forces are starting to battle it out in Damascus as well,” said Mar Ram, an activist in Midan, the district
where the Zain al-Abideen mosque is located.
Most independent media have been barred from Syria, making it hard to
verify events on the ground.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Damascus on Thursday of breaking its pledge to
withdraw heavy weapons and troops from towns, saying he was “gravely alarmed by reports of continued violence and killing in
Syria.
The Syrians for Human Rights Network, one of many groups seeking to topple Assad, said security forces had
committed 86 ceasefire violations, including a helicopter gunship opening fire on a civilian area and snipers targeting
protesters.
Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud accused rebels of 1,300 truce breaches and said the state “reserved the
right to respond to any violation or attack,” state news agency SANA reported.
A handful of U.N. ceasefire monitors is
already on the ground and U.N. officials said the full advance team of 30 out of a planned 300-strong presence would be there
by Monday.
The Syrians for Human Rights Network, one of many groups seeking to topple Assad, said security forces had
committed 86 ceasefire violations, including a helicopter gunship opening fire on a civilian area and snipers targeting
protesters.
Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud accused rebels of 1,300 truce breaches and said the state “reserved the
right to respond to any violation or attack,” state news agency SANA reported.
A dozen U.N. ceasefire monitors are
already on the ground and U.N. officials said the full advance team of 30 out of a planned 300-strong presence would be there
by Monday.
The slow build-up more than two weeks after the truce came into effect has sparked derision from Assad’s
foes and frustration in Western capitals, where leaders want tough measures imposed on Damascus sooner rather than
later.
France says that if Assad’s forces do not return to barracks, it will push next month for a “Chapter 7”
Security Council resolution – a diplomatic move that could lead to action ranging from economic sanctions to military
intervention.
Western powers have said they intend to push for an arms embargo and U.N. sanctions.
Russia and
China have made clear that they would veto any attempt to authorise Libya-style military action in Syria and have resisted
the idea of sanctions.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans; Editing by
Alistair Lyon)