THERE WERE reports of an explosion yesterday near Damascus at the headquarters of the Syrian army’s fourth armoured division commanded by President Bashar al-Assad’s brother Maher.
The division, composed largely of professional soldiers from the Assads’ Shia-offshoot Alawite sect, has played a key role in trying to crush the uprising over the past 19 months. Residents of the Maadamiyeh suburb said smoke was seen rising from the base of the site.
The blast is said to have occurred as UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi continued talks in Damascus to try to secure agreement to a temporary ceasefire over the period of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, which begins on Friday. Mr Assad told Mr Brahimi that the military would observe the truce if there was a halt to the arming of Syrian rebels by outside powers.
There is confusion in rebel and opposition ranks over the ceasefire proposal. Rebel commanders have characterised it as a “media bubble” and a “trick” and urged Mr Brahimi to admit that his mission has failed.
The domestic Local Co-ordination Committees have flatly rejected the ceasefire but expatriate Syrian National Council chief Abdel Baset Sieda said rebel fighters were ready to observe a truce although they did not trust the government’s intentions. Mr Brahimi “hasn’t any mechanism to observe” the truce, he said.
With Mr Brahimi set to brief the UN Security Council today, Russia has postponed the release of a draft council statement welcoming the ceasefire. In spite of the unpropitious prospects for the initiative, Hervé Ladsous, UN head of peacekeeping, has said that 3,000 peacekeepers could be deployed to monitor a ceasefire.
In the fighting, Syrian warplanes bombed the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan in order to reopen the supply route from Damascus to Aleppo.
Army shelling reportedly killed 20 people standing in line at an Aleppo bakery and an anti-aircraft shell struck an empty room at a health centre in Turkey’s Hatay province. The Turkish army has responded 87 times to such attacks with fire on Syrian military positions, killing a dozen soldiers and destroying armoured vehicles.
The Vatican, which backs a ceasefire, has cancelled the visit to Syria of a delegation of seven cardinals and bishops because of the “gravity of the situation”.
