Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi yesterday appealed to both sides in Syria’s conflict to cease fire for a Muslim holiday this week after meeting President Bashar al-Assad, even as a deadly blast rocked the capital Damascus.
Thousands of people took part in a demonstration against the Syrian regime at the Beirut funeral of a top Lebanese police intelligence chief who was killed in a car bombing, which Lebanon’s Opposition has blamed on Damascus.
In Syria’s capital, a bomb exploded outside a police station in a Christian quarter of the Old City, killing 13 people, the state news agency Sana reported, blaming the blast on rebel forces.
The bombing came as UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi, after meeting Assad, called for “unilateral” ceasefires by the regime and the rebels for the Eid al-Adha holiday that starts on Friday. “I appeal to everyone to take a unilateral decision to cease hostilities on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and that this truce be respected from today or tomorrow,” he said.
The envoy told reporters that the ceasefire call was his “personal initiative, not a blueprint for peace”.
“This is a call to every Syrian, on the street, in the village, fighting in the regular army and its opponents, for them to take unilateral decisions to stop hostilities,” he said.
Brahimi has visited several countries with influence in the Syrian conflict over the past week, including Lebanon and Iran, while warning that the violence could spread and set the entire region ablaze.
On the ground, clashes were reported yesterday in several parts of Syria, including Damascus province and Aleppo, a key battleground for three months.
A car bomb exploded in the Sarian district of this second Syrian city, wounding several people, an AFP correspondent said.
A security source said the blast had been caused by “a suicide car bomber”.
In the Damascus province town of Harasta, nine people, including a child and three rebels, were killed in clashes and shelling, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also reported bombardment of the nearby town of Irbin.
Renewed fighting was reported at the southern entrance to Maaret al-Numan, a strategic town on the Aleppo-Damascus highway that fell to the rebels on October 9, severing a key army supply route.
The Britain-based Observatory gave an initial death toll of at least 55 killed nationwide yesterday, adding to its estimate of more than 34,000 dead since March 2011.