BEIRUT — At least 25 people were killed and 46 wounded Friday morning when a bomb exploded in the Syrian capital, marking the second large-scale attack in the city in two weeks and escalating pressure on the Arab League as it prepares to decide whether to extend a monitoring mission in the turbulent country.
State news media reported that a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at a busy intersection in Damascus’ central Midan neighborhood at a time when many people would have been heading to Friday prayers.
The perpetrator was not immediately clear: As in the previous attack, officials blamed terrorists, while dissidents said the authorities themselves were responsible. Neither side cited evidence to support its claims.
Midan has been the site of numerous protests in the course of a nine- month uprising against the government of President Bashar Assad. The military crackdown prompted by the revolt has killed at least 5,000 people, according to U.N. estimates.
Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that almost 300 civilians have been killed since Arab League monitors arrived two weeks ago to oversee implementation of an agreement to halt deadly force against protesters.
Friday’s attack comes at a decisive moment for the 22-member Cairo- based Arab body, which is due to meet Sunday to decide whether to continue the mission in Syria. Roughly 100 monitors have deployed to the flash-point cities of Homs, Daraa and Hama.
“I fear that the violence is going to escalate, especially in the absence of any credible dynamic to stop it,” said Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Institution in Doha. “The Arab League mission, I believe, has failed and is not likely to lead to the implementation of the agreement.”
Protests took place across Syria on Friday, despite further violence that activists said killed 19 people. Although demonstrators say they are still targeted by snipers if they attend protests, most heavy weapons and uniformed soldiers have been withdrawn from cities in the past two weeks, seemingly in response to the presence of Arab League monitors.
In Midan, residents have described busloads of security forces arriving in the area every Friday, and arresting and beating people as they leave the mosques after prayers, some of them chanting anti-government slogans.
A Syrian security official told The Associated Press that the target of Friday’s attack appeared to be a bus carrying police.
Most of the casualties were civilians, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed bin Helli denounced the attack and said its observers would be able to contribute insight, AP reported.
“The mission, which is on the scene, will undoubtedly have an opinion,” he said.
