UN condemns Syria bomb attacks after 55 killed

SYRIA: The UN Security Council on Thursday condemned the deadliest bomb attacks of Syria's 14-month uprising, urging all sides to stick to an international peace plan after at least 55 people were killed.

The Syrian government and opposition traded the blame for Thursday's twin suicide bomb attacks in Damascus, which also left nearly 400 people wounded in horrific scenes of carnage.

The blasts during the morning rush hour further clouded a UN-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan that has failed to take hold since it went into effect on April 12. Syrian state television aired gruesome footage of the aftermath of the twin explosions in the neighbourhood of Qazzaz, blaming rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad's embattled regime.

The television showed images of a woman's charred hand on a steering wheel, her gold bracelets dangling from her blackened wrist. Other burnt and mangled bodies lay in the street amid the carcasses of smouldering vehicles and rubble. Russia and China, which have stymied Western efforts to heap strongercondemnation on Assad's government, joined in a UN Security Council denunciation of the attacks.

The 15 Security Council members “condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks” in the Syrian capital, according to a statement. The council called on all sides to “immediately and comprehensively” implement the six-point peace plan of UN-Arab League envoy Annan. AFP