April 29, 2014 -- Updated 1751 GMT (0151 HKT)
At least 58 people in Syria were killed Tuesday in "terrorist" mortar
and car bomb attacks in the city of Homs and the Damascus area, the
state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported. FULL STORY
Attacks kill nearly 60 in Homs, Damascus, Syrian media report
April 29, 2014 -- Updated 1604 GMT (0004 HKT)
Shrapnel holes are visible on cars after a mortar attack Tuesday in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Mortar and car bomb attacks killed nearly 60 people, report says
- NEW: A car bombing in Homs' al-Zahra neighborhood kills 40, state news agency says
- The car bomb hits an Alawite area, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
- Chemical weapons watchdog says it is investigating chlorine gas attack claims
A car bombing in Homs' al-Zahra neighborhood killed 40, SANA reported, citing an unnamed source in the area.
The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, also reported many
casualties, including women and children, in the car bomb attack.
It described al-Zahra as
an Alawite neighborhood. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is a member
of the Alawite religious sect, which is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
In Damascus, mortar
rounds hit the al-Shaghour neighborhood. Two slammed into the Badr-Eddin
al-Hooni Institute for Islamic Sharia Sciences, killing 14.
Four people were killed
in a mortar strike at a center for displaced people in the Damascus
countryside. Three of those killed were children.
Scores of people were wounded in the violence.
The unrest comes amid
Syria's three-year civil war pitting government forces against rebels
trying to end the rule of al-Assad. The government often refers to
rebels as armed terrorists bent on destabilizing the country.
The government announced this month that new elections would be held June 3.
But that may not yield
any change in a country where al-Assad's family has had a tight grip on
power for 43 years. Al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000 and won a
second term in 2007, unopposed.
Friends formed through conflict
More than 100,000 people, including many civilians, have been killed in the war.
Chlorine gas attack claims
The Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced Tuesday that it would
investigate claims the Syrian government may have used chlorine gas in a
deadly attack on its people this month in Hama province.
"The Syrian government,
which has agreed to accept this mission, has undertaken to provide
security in areas under its control," the OPCW said. "The mission will
carry out its work in the most challenging circumstances."
The team is expected to leave for Syria soon and has the backing of the United Nations, the statement added.
If confirmed, a chlorine
attack would undermine a deal brokered by Russia last fall and approved
by the U.N. Security Council that requires Syria to surrender its
chemical weapons to the international community.
The agreement halted
threats of U.S. military action after allegations Syria launched a
chemical attack last August that killed over 1,400 people. Al-Assad and
other officials have vehemently denied their forces were responsible.
The Syrian opposition
does not have helicopters to carry and deliver such weapons, and has
been trading accusations with the government about the April 11
incident.
Controversy followed
video clips posted on anti-government websites showing a number of
civilians, including children, appearing to have difficulty breathing
and using oxygen masks. The chemical symbol for chlorine, Cl2, is
visible on the side of a canister that opposition activists say was used
in the attack.
State Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week that the United States "had
indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical, probably
chlorine, in Syria this month in the opposition-dominated village of
Kfar Zeita."
She added, "We're examining allegations that the government was responsible."
Analyst: 'A likely deliberate tactic'
In a report Tuesday, analyst Firas Abi Ali of IHS Country Risk
cited several claims in international and opposition social media that
the Syrian government has stepped up its use of chlorine gas against
civilian and military targets in Idlib, Hama and Damascus provinces
since April 15.
IHS has not been able to
confirm the reports independently, he said, but they have been
corroborated by videos showing civilians suffering symptoms associated
with chemical weapons use.
"If confirmed, it
indicates that Assad assesses that he can use these weapons with
impunity, given U.S. unwillingness to intervene directly, and reflects
his own forces' overstretch in the face of opposition offensives in
Daraa, Aleppo and Latakia," he said.
"Moreover, the use of
chemical weapons is a likely deliberate tactic intended to highlight to
the civilian population the severe cost of supporting the insurgency."
Chlorine is not listed
as a chemical that Syria is expected to give up under the Security
Council resolution. But its use as a weapon of war is prohibited under
the 1925 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria has signed.
More than 90% of Syria's
chemical weapons material has now been removed or destroyed, the OPCW
said Thursday, ahead of the June 30 deadline agreed to under the
international deal.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.
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