Head of Syria’s UN monitoring mission escapes bomb attack

They saw an explosion hit a truck containing soldiers behind the UN vehicles,
cracking its windows.

The chief monitor, Maj-Gen Robert Mood, a Norwegian, said: “For me the
important thing is really not speculating about who was the target, what was
the target, but it is to make the point that this is what the Syrian people
are seeing every day and it needs to stop – whoever is doing it and whoever
is supporting it.”

Yet the possibility of bombings becoming a regular feature of the insurgency,
with responsibility disputed, is a further worrying sign that Syria’s
conflict might become a long-drawn out affair with a number of different
factions attacking each other with little clear tactical purpose, as in Iraq.

Although responsibility for some of the bombings has been claimed by a new
group said to be linked to Al-Qaeda, there is little evidence of any
organisational planning by the group, or what its purpose would be other
than to sew further instability.

On the other hand, attacks by both the regime and the rebels are evidence
enough that the monitors’ presence has only changed the nature of the
conflict, not put an end to it.

The attack in Damascus was a well-organised ambush, activists suggested, with
a bus carrying members of the militia being hit by several rocket-propelled
grenades in the suburb of Erbeen.

Meanwhile, regime forces shelled a number of towns across the country,
including the Damascus suburb of Douma, a major hotspot, and Rastan, north
of Homs.

Soldiers firing across the border into Lebanon also killed an 75-year-old
woman, Halima Suleiman Karbi, who was sitting outside a mosque with her
daughter.

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