Twin bombs exploded near a tightly guarded government compound in the heart of Damascus on Sunday, state media said, as new international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said change was “unavoidable.”
Speaking to satellite news channel Al-Jazeera as he took over as UN-Arab League envoy from former UN chief Kofi Annan, Brahimi carefully refrained, however, from publicly calling as his predecessor had for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Four people were wounded in the twin bombings which struck in the Abu Remmaneh district where several security service buildings and the office of Vice President Faruq al-Shara are located, state television said.
The attack, which state media blamed on “terrorists” — the government’s standard term for rebels fighting to end Assad’s rule — came a day after a bombing killed 15 people in a southern suburb of Damascus. They were among at least 168 people killed on Saturday — 110 civilians, 32 soldiers and 26 rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
