Twin blasts near Damascus military compound

Syrian state television said six people were wounded in twin explosions in Damascus that appeared to target the country’s military leadership.Damascus residents said on Sunday that the explosions occurred at a security building in the Abu Rummana district, not far from the compound housing the army and air force headquarters near central Umayyad Square. All of those injured were male conscripts, Syrian television. Two of them were reported to be in a critical condition.The opposition Syrian Local Co-ordination Committee reported scores of deaths in fighting in Damascus, its subrubs, and Hama on Sunday.Video footage from activists showed plumes of white smoke rising from the district, an upscale neighbourhood in the heart of Damascus that is home to several embassies.“A terrorist attack with two bombs occurred in Al-Mehdi Street in the Abu Rummana district,” state television said.The area contains several security service buildings, as well as the office of Vice President Faruq al-Shara. The explosion occurred near a security services building which is tasked with protecting the army’s general staff.In July, a bombing killed four members of President Bashar al-Assad’s top circle of security advisers, including his brother-in-law.The Ahfad al-Rasul [Grandchildren of the Prophet] brigade of the rebel Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Facebook, in which it also threatened to attack Assad’s palace.“This operation was carried out in response to the massacres in Daraya,” said the statement, referring to the killing last week of at least 330 people in a town near Damascus. Regime and rebel forces blamed each other for the massacre.Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton reported from Antakya, Turkey, that the attack on the heart of the military complex was a symbolically important one.“If this has an impact on moral, a psychological impact on the Syrian forces, we may see a lot more people defecting,” she said.“This group [the Grandchildren of the Prophet Brigade] isn’t that new, they are one of the many brigades trying to cause mayhem and havoc inside of Damascus,” she said. Also on Sunday, state media reported that a car bomb explosion near a mosque at Sbeneh in the southern outskirts of the capital on Saturday killed 15 people. Sbeneh is a poor neighbourhood where anti-government sentiment is strong.