Syrian state TV reported twin bombings near security service buildings in the centre of the capital yesterday and said they wounded four people.
The explosives were planted by regime troops who had been bribed by the (rebel) brigades
“A terrorist attack with two bombs occurred in Al-Mehdi Street in the Abu Remmaneh district,” it said of a zone where several security service buildings are located and that also houses the office of Vice President Faruq al-Shara.
Mr Shara is the highest-ranking Sunni Muslim in Mr Assad’s minority Alawite-led government and was the subject of repeated defection rumours last month before he made a public appearance during a visit by a senior envoy from key ally Iran.
The attack took place near a security services building which is tasked with protecting the army’s general staff, whose headquarters is located in the central Umayyad Square, some three kilometres away.
Abu Remmaneh is an upscale neighbourhood in the heart of Damascus and is home to several embassies.
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 President Bashar al-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.
The group said it had prepared the twin bombings with the help of two other rebel groups.
“The explosives were planted by regime troops who had been bribed by the (rebel) brigades,” Matar Ismail, spokesman of the Ahfad al-Rasul brigade, said via Skype.
New international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi yesterday said change in Syria was “unavoidable”.
Speaking to satellite channel Al-Jazeera as he took over as UN-Arab League envoy from former UN chief Kofi Annan, Mr Brahimi carefully refrained, however, from publicly calling, as his predecessor had, for President Assad to quit.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Syrian National Council, meanwhile, has agreed to expand to include more groups opposing Mr Assad and will reform to be more representative, a spokesman said.
At a meeting in Stockholm late on Saturday, the SNC agreed to expand its membership and to hold a vote later this month to elect its leadership, spokesman George Sabra said.
The move follows criticism from both within and outside the group that it is failing to unite the diverse opposition forces working against Mr Assad, after more than 17 months of brutal conflict.
The violence has since intensified with August much the bloodiest month of a conflict that has killed more than 26,000 people, according to Syrian Observatory figures.