BEIRUT—Rebels
seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime launched three
separate attacks on his security forces around Damascus on Tuesday, killing two ranking
officers and rocking the capital with a booby-trapped car, activists and state
media said.
The
attacks took place as a U.N. team observing Syria's violence-ridden truce was
visiting another area near the capital, the restive suburb of Douma. Activists
and amateur videos reported shelling and gunfire in that area Tuesday, just a
day after 55 people were killed across Syria—most of them in a city the
observers had recently visited.
Tuesday's
attacks underline the increasing militarization of the 13-month-old conflict
and show the effort by Assad's opponents to chip away at the security services
he relies upon to quash dissent.
The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one intelligence officer
was killed in the capital's Barzeh neighborhood but gave no information on how
he died.
Separately,
an army truck blew up as it was driving through downtown Damascus. The blast in Marjah Square near the Iranian Cultural
Center left blood and
shattered glass on the road. The truck's driver and two passengers in a nearby
car were injured and taken to a hospital.
Security
officials at the scene said the truck driver did not appear to be implicated in
the blast, suggesting the explosives had been planted on the vehicle. The
officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
talk to the media.
The
Syrian government did not immediately comment on those attacks.
The
state news service, however, said "terrorists" killed a retired
lieutenant colonel and his brother in a Damascus
suburb in a third attack.
No
one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. CONTINUE . . . . .
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