Damascus: Two powerful blasts struck Damascus on Thursday, killing 40 people, wounding nearly 200 and prompting the UN observer chief to appeal for help to end the bloodshed ravaging Syria.
Gruesome footage of the aftermath of the explosions, which rocked Qazzaz district during the morning rush hour, was aired on state television, which blamed the near simultaneous attacks on "terrorists."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombings targeted an intelligence base and killed about 50 people, making them the "most violent" attacks in the country's 14-month uprising.
Both civilians and security forces members were among the casualties, the Britain-based watchdog said, adding at least one of the blasts was caused by a car bomb.
"Two explosions caused by terrorists took place on the freeway in the south of Damascus," state television said, adding the blasts occurred "as people were heading to work and children to school."
It provided a toll of 40 dead and 170 wounded, while saying that, in addition, rescue workers "filled eight bags with human remains."
The opposition Syrian National Council accused President Bashar Al Assad's regime of being behind the bombings.
"The regime is behind this," the exile group's Samir Nashar said, adding the aim was to warn UN observers they were in danger and to impress upon the international community that the regime was battling "terrorists."
"This is the only way for the regime to claim that what is happening in Syria is the work of terrorist gangs and that Al Qaida is expanding its presence in Syria," said Nashar.
The blasts took place near a nine-storey security building, the facade of which was destroyed along with several surrounding residential complexes, an AFP correspondent reported.
Television showed images of a woman's charred hand on a steering wheel, her gold bracelets dangling from her wrist.
Other burnt and mangled bodies lay in the street amid the carcasses of smouldering vehicles.
"Is that the freedom you want? Students from schools and employees going to work are dead," shouted one man in the middle of the destruction.
Major General Robert Mood, chief of a UN observer mission who visited the site of the explosions, appealed for help to stop the bloodshed.
"This is yet another example of the suffering brought upon the people of Syria. We, the world community, are here with the Syrian people and I call on everyone within and outside Syria to help stop this violence," he said.
The attacks came a day after the Norwegian general escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb exploded as he led a team of UN observers into the flashpoint southern city of Daraa.
Ten Syrian soldiers escorting them were hurt in Wednesday's bombing, the UN said.
Damascus has been the target of a number of bombs in past months as Assad faces a revolt against his regime which his forces are attempting to crush.
Suicide bombers hit two security service bases in the capital on December 23, killing 44 people, in attacks the regime blamed on Al Qaida but which the opposition said were the work of the regime itself.
Commenting after Wednesday's Daraa attack, UN leader Ban Ki-moon warned Syria's government and opposition there is only a "brief window" to avoid civil war and indicated the future of the ceasefire monitoring mission was in doubt.
Highlighting an "alarming upsurge" of roadside bombs, alongside government attacks, Ban said in New York that both sides "must realise that we have a brief window to stop the violence, a brief opportunity to create an opening for political engagement between the government and those seeking change."
He also warned that such bombings cast doubt on the future of the mission set up to monitor a truce brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
If the violence did not stop, Ban said he feared "a full-scale civil war with catastrophic effects within Syria and across the region."
China on Thursday condemned the attack on the UN observers, and called on all parties to "stop violence."
"China condemns the relevant bombing attack," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said about the Wednesday blast.
"We call on all parties in Syria to stop violence (in)... earnest, cooperate with and support the work of the UN monitors and ensure their safety, so as to launch the political dialogue process at an early date."
Elsewhere in the country on Thursday, regime forces killed three civilians, including a child, the Syrian Observatory said.
The child was killed in government shelling of Khan Sheikhun, a town in Idlib province in the northwest, while the other two civilians died in similar circumstances in Daraa and central Homs.
The watchdog says that almost 12,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since the revolt, inspired by Arab Spring uprisings, broke out in March last year.
About 800 of them have died since the UN-backed truce was supposed to have taken effect on April 12.
