Thousands of people turned out on Saturday for prayers in memory of the 44 people killed by suicide bombers in the capital as charge and counter-charge swirled over who was behind the attacks.
Mourners prayed before flag-draped coffins, while a crowd outside waved portraits of embattled President Bashar al-Assad and banners of the ruling Baath party as police stood watch. Religious Affairs Minister Abdel Sattar al-Sayyed read out a statement from Christian and Muslim religious leaders “denouncing the criminal attacks on Friday… and the murder, destruction and sabotage “that are part of a “dangerous plot against Syria.”
Arab League monitors were to meet Syria’s top diplomat on Saturday, a day after suicide bombers killed 44 people in attacks Damascus blamed on Al-Qaeda but the opposition said were the regime’s work. The bombings, the first against the powerful security services in the heart of the capital since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March, came a day after the arrival of an advance group of monitors.
“On the first day after the arrival of the Arab observers, this is the gift we get from the terrorists and Al-Qaeda, but we are going to do all we can to facilitate the Arab League mission,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad.The delegates are in the country to pave the way for the arrival of a team of Arab League observers tasked with overseeing an end to the bloodshed, and will hold talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
Muallem has said he expects the observers to vindicate his government’s contention the unrest is the work of “armed terrorists,” not overwhelmingly peaceful protesters as maintained by Western powers and human rights watchdogs. Asked by reporters to comment on suggestions the bombings had been engineered by the regime itself, Meqdad shot back: “Anyone who makes such allegations is a criminal.” But the opposition Syrian National Council said in a statement that: “The Syrian regime, alone, bears all the direct responsibility for the two terrorist explosions.”
The regime wanted to create the impression “that it faces danger coming from abroad and not a popular revolution demanding freedom and dignity,” it added. The UN Security Council condemned suicide attacks in the Syrian capital but remained deadlocked on a full resolution on the crisis with the Russian and US ambassadors trading personal barbs.
With world powers arguing about details of a UN resolution on Syria, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate end to the bloodshed and urged the Syrian government to implement a peace plan proposed by the Arab League. European and US officials want the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on Syria’s government because of its nine-month-old crackdown on protesters Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, meanwhile, announced the freezing of assets of more Syrians loyal to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, as well as a beefed-up trade ban.
The new measures prohibit all imports, with the exception of food, from Syria, as well as all new investment in Syria, and the export to Syria of equipment, including software, for the monitoring of telephone and Internet communications. Meanwhile, Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood Spokesman Zuhair Salem, denied Saturday an Internet claim of responsibility by the group for suicide bombings in Damascus, saying it was on a fake website created by the regime.
Salem, speaking from London, said the claim was “completely fabricated under our name on the Internet.” It was “completely orchestrated by the regime, just as the attacks were,” he added. Earlier, a website purporting to be that of the Muslim Brotherhood, claimed that four suicide bombers had carried out the Friday bombings, in which 44 died and 166 were hurt, and threatened more attacks. Moreover, the bodies of four civilians who had been arrested were found Saturday with signs of torture in restive Homs province, activists said, urging the visiting Arab League team to document the cases. They demanded that the Arab League “immediately head to the town of Hula to document this flagrant violation of human rights which is just the tip of the iceberg of what is going on in Syria.”
