Last night, a car bomb exploded in the city of Salmiyeh in the eastern Syrian province of Hama, causing great material damage and claiming more than 30 human lives, reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A senior Syrian official confirmed to AFP that dozens of people were killed in the attack, and the Syrian Observatory claims that the target was a building used by fighters loyal to the regime.
The same source presented the first estimates, according to which "30 members of armed militias were killed in a car-bomb explosion in front of their headquarters in Salmijeh". Citing hospital sources, the Syrian Observatory stated that there are civilians among the dead and that the number of victims may exceed 50, given the dozens of injured, some of whom are in critical condition.
The Syrian state agency SANA also reported that in this explosion "a terrorist car bomb was activated in the heart of Salmiyeh and that there are a large number of dead and wounded."
A little earlier this evening, the Italian agency Ansa reported that another car bomb explosion took place in Syria in Dumar, a suburb of Damascus, and that, according to initial information, there were more casualties.
This second explosion, according to the Italian agency, took place in the part of the city where the families of Syrian security service officers live.
Ban Ki-moon and El-Ibrahimi condemned the sale of arms to Syria
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his envoy for Syria El-Ahdar el-Ibrahimi criticized "external forces" arming the Syrian government and the opposition on Monday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirki said.
The two officials, who met in New York on Monday, also expressed "deep concern" over the death toll in Syria's 22-month-old conflict, as well as frustration over the inability of major powers on the Security Council to come together to end the violence.
Ban Ki-moon and El-Ibrahimi "expressed deep disappointment and concern over the terrible scale of killings and destruction committed by the government and the opposition, which are encouraged by external forces that supply weapons to both sides," said Nesirki, who did not say which countries were in question.
Russia and Iran supply weapons to the Syrian regime, and Damascus accuses Turkey and Gulf countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia of doing the same for the Syrian opposition.
Ban Ki-moon and El-Ibrahimi also expressed their concern about "the absence of a unified position of the international community that could lead to a (political) transition", in accordance with the agreement from Geneva last June.
On three occasions, Russia and China blocked proposals for Security Council resolutions on the crisis in Syria. Moscow rejects the possibility of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad being excluded from the negotiations on the political transition, which the Syrian opposition and the West demand. El Ibrahimi, the UN and Arab League envoy, will present a report on his mission to the Security Council on January 29.
The head of the Arab League, Nabil el-Arabi, called on Monday for the UN to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Syria and assessed that El-Ibrahimi's mission did not bring "a glimmer of hope" that the crisis in that country will end.
Syrian rebels in conflict with the Kurds
At least 56 people have been killed in seven days of fighting in northeastern Syria between Syrian rebels and members of the long-oppressed Kurdish minority, which wants to use the civil war to secure autonomy, activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, reported today that rebels against the government of Bashar al-Assad used tanks and mortars against Kurdish forces today.
As Arab rebels surround government forces in the west and south of the country, the Kurds, who make up about XNUMX percent of Syria's population, are using the power vacuum to establish Kurdish schools and cultural centers, which were not allowed under the long rule of Al Assad's Baath party. The Kurds are trying to form their own armed militia to protect them in the region they live in.
The Kurds have so far kept their distance from the Sunni-majority rebels, among whom the influence of Islamists is growing, for fear that they will not respect their aspirations for autonomy in the region that holds a significant portion of Syria's estimated 2,5 billion barrels of crude oil reserves.
On Tuesday, fighters of the Kurdish People's Defense Units (KPDU) clashed with rebel groups in the city of Ras al-Ain in the northern province of Hasakah, the Observatory reported. "Clashes broke out last Wednesday and resulted in the death of at least 56 fighters".
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