Suicide bomb near Damascus mosque

A suicide bomber killed nine people, some of them security men, outside a Damascus mosque on Friday, Syrian state media said, in another blow to a fraying U.N.-brokered truce between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting for his downfall.

The explosion under a flyover occurred as worshippers were leaving the Midan district's Zain al-Abideen mosque, which was under heavy security due to its reputation as a launchpad for anti-Assad demonstrations after Friday prayers.

A resident who spoke to security officials at the scene said they reported a man in military uniform walking towards the area from a nearby street.

When several soldiers went to challenge him, he triggered an explosives vest, they said. Many of the body parts scattered across the tarmac were wearing green military-style clothing, the resident added.

State media said 28 people were also wounded in the blast, one of several in the country of 23 million on Friday.

"We had been trying to go to 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 by telephone.

"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."  CONTINUE . . . . .

Syria suicide attacks kill 30

The Syrian government says more than 30 people have been killed in two suicide car bombings outside security service facilities in the capital, Damascus.
Suicide bombers in explosives-packed cars killed some 30 civilians and military troops Friday in two attacks in the Syrian capital Damascus.
 

Opposition groups cast doubt on state media reports saying a preliminary investigation indicated the bombings -- the first major attacks in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March -- carried the "blueprint" of al-Qaida, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.
Activists on social media accused the government of being behind the blasts, which came as Arab League mission observers arrived to oversee the government's agreement to a peace plan to end the nine months of violence.
State media reported 30 deaths.
The blasts came a day after an advance team of Arab League observers arrived in the country to monitor Syria's promise to end its crackdown on protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad. Government officials took the observers to the scene of the explosions and said it backed their longtime claims that the turmoil is not a popular uprising but the work of terrorists.