Syria crisis: Damascus hit by double 'suicide bombing'

[EC]

Via the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22852957

wo suicide bombers have blown themselves up in the centre of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing 14 people, Syrian state media says.

At least 30 other people were injured in the blasts, in Marjeh Square.

The explosions happened at a police building in the busy commercial district.

The attack comes as regime forces prepare an assault to recapture the northern city of Aleppo after having retaken Qusair from the rebels.

Images on Syria's al-Ikhbariya TV showed a scene of widespread damage, with shop fronts blown out and debris littering the street.

Blood stains marked the pavement, while people milled around among broken glass and wreckage.

One bomber reached the first floor of the police station and detonated his explosives when he came under fire, police told the BBC's Lyse Doucet in Damascus.

Several walls collapsed from the force of the blast. Others are splattered with blood and flesh, and punctured by holes from ball bearings packed inside the bomb.

The entire floor is littered with broken furniture and chunks of plaster, police sources say.

Police say a second suicide bomber exploded his device shortly afterwards, on the street below, as police were leaving the station.

It is unclear whether police are among the dead and injured.

Such attacks are not uncommon in Damascus - the same square was struck just six weeks ago.

But residents of the city centre say the situation there is much quieter now than it was a few months ago, when rebel forces were pressing in around the city and a final assault seemed imminent.

Since then, a major counteroffensive by regime forces has pushed the rebels back from the nearby suburbs, especially on the eastern and southern flanks of the capital.

Syria's conflict started more than two years ago, with largely peaceful protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

But it has now turned into a civil war that has killed more than 80,000 people, according to the United Nations.

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