This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/world/middleeast/syria.html

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Car Bombs Kill at Least 19 as Attacks on Syrian Civilians Continue Car Bombs in Central Syria Kill at Least 19
(about 4 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — In the latest strike in a rapid-fire series of bloody attacks on children and other civilians in Syria in recent days, two car bombs exploded in the central province of Hama on Friday, killing at least 19 people, including at least eight children, Syrian state media and antigovernment activists reported. BEIRUT, Lebanon — In the latest strike in a rapid-fire series of bloody attacks on children and other civilians in Syria, two car bombs exploded in the central province of Hama on Friday, killing at least 19 people, including 11 children, Syrian state news media reported, blaming insurgents.
The bombings came even as a cease-fire deal was reported in the battered city of Homs. Insurgents, security officials and pro-government media said a budding agreement would allow the last remaining insurgents in the Old City of Homs to flee. The deal was brokered in Turkey by Iranian officials and the insurgent Islamic Front and included meetings in Homs between government officials and rebel representatives, antigovernment fighters and activists said. The bombings came even as a cease-fire deal was being negotiated in the battered city of Homs, according to insurgents, security officials and pro-government media outlets. A budding agreement that would allow the last remaining insurgents in the Old City of Homs to flee was brokered in Turkey by Iranian officials and an insurgent alliance called the Islamic Front, according to antigovernment fighters and activists, who said that government officials and rebel representatives were continuing negotiations in Homs.
If it holds, the agreement would hand a victory for President Bashar al-Assad ahead of presidential elections next month, giving the government control of a bastion of rebellion in central Syria, where a dwindling group of fighters and civilians have held out through two years of blockade and bombardment. If it holds, the agreement would hand a victory to President Bashar al-Assad ahead of the presidential election next month, giving the government control of a bastion of rebellion in central Syria, where dwindling numbers of fighters and civilians have held out through two years of blockade and bombardment.
But any hopes that a cease-fire could build new common ground were undermined by painful images of dead and injured children, who appeared to bear more of the brunt than usual this week in escalating attacks by both sides. Bombings of schools and marketplaces drew fierce condemnation from rights groups and left Syrians of all political stripes reeling, deepening political and sectarian divides and making the prospect of repairing the country’s rifts seem ever more remote. But any hopes that a cease-fire could build new common ground were undermined by images of dead and wounded children, who appeared to bear more of the brunt of attacks than usual this week. Bombings of schools and marketplaces by government and insurgent forces drew fierce condemnation from rights groups and left Syrians of all political stripes reeling, deepening political and sectarian divides and making the chances of repairing the country’s rifts seem ever more remote.
In Homs on Tuesday, in a video posted online, a gray-haired man held a piece of cardboard laden with bloody scraps of flesh, all that remained of one victim after a pair of car bombs detonated in a busy government-controlled area, an attack claimed by the insurgent group the Nusra Front that residents say killed as many as 120 people, including, according to the antigovernment Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 27 children. In Homs on Tuesday, in a video posted online, a gray-haired man held a piece of cardboard on which were bloody scraps of flesh, all that remained of one victim after two car bombs detonated in a busy government-controlled area. The Nusra Front, an insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attack, which residents said killed as many as 120 people, including at least 27 children, according to the antigovernment Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“God, Syria, Bashar and nothing else!” chanted an anguished crowd amid blackened buildings and emergency vehicles in the Zahra neighborhood, a government-controlled and largely pro-Assad area. Residents last month showed reporters damage from another car bomb in a busy shopping area — one of five similar bombings in Homs in the last two months. In the northern city of Aleppo, the death toll mounted in government aerial attacks on a crowded marketplace on Thursday and on a school on Wednesday. According to residents, a young girl who made a drawing of a student defying a soldier amid a pile of skulls was among the dead. The drawing was to have been exhibited at an art show at her school.
In the northern city of Aleppo, the death toll mounted in government aerial attacks on a crowded marketplace on Thursday and on a school on Wednesday. According to residents, a girl whose striking drawing of a girl defying a soldier amid a pile of skulls was to have been exhibited in an art show at the bombarded school is now counted among the dead. At least 17 children died at the school, and seven in the market, among 59 killed in Aleppo this week, according to the Observatory and a local monitoring group, the Violations Documentation Center. At least 17 children died at the school, and seven in the market, bringing the number of children killed in Aleppo this week to 59, according to the Syrian Observatory and a local monitoring group, the Violations Documentation Center.
Video footage from the neighborhood, one of many insurgent-held areas of Aleppo that have been pummeled by warplanes and barrel bombs dropped from helicopters, showed the bodies of elementary school children zipped into gray body bags, with only their small faces exposed. Video from the neighborhood, one of many insurgent-held areas of Aleppo that have been pummeled by warplanes and barrel bombs dropped from helicopters, showed the bodies of schoolchildren zipped into gray body bags, with only their faces exposed.
The scene was chillingly similar in Damascus a day earlier, where another video showed nearly identical gray body bags that contained slightly larger corpses, of boys who appeared to be in their early teens, their bodies riddled with shrapnel wounds. That footage showed the aftermath of a mortar attack Tuesday on an Islamic educational complex in the government-held Shaghour district. The scene was chillingly similar a day earlier in Damascus, where another video showed nearly identical body bags that held boys who appeared to be in their early teens, their bodies riddled with shrapnel wounds. That footage showed the aftermath of a mortar attack Tuesday on an Islamic educational complex in the government-held Shaghour district.
Though no one claimed responsibility for the attack, the shelling originated from insurgent-held territory, witnesses told Human Rights Watch, which reported that the death toll had reached 17, including 13 children identified in photographs and lists of names posted on social media. Though no one claimed responsibility for that attack, the shelling originated from insurgent-held territory, witnesses told Human Rights Watch, which reported that the death toll had reached 17 and included 13 children identified in photographs and from lists of names posted on social media.
Weeping, one boy told state television that a friend had just come outside after reading the Quran. While weeping, one boy told state television that a friend had come outside just after reading the Quran. “I told him, ‘Come and take my hand,’ then the shell landed and he flew away,” the boy said. “I was calling him but couldn’t find him.”
“I told him, ‘come and take my hand,’ then the shell landed and he flew away,” the boy said. “I was calling him but couldn’t find him.” Human Rights Watch warned insurgents on Thursday, as it has warned the government before, that targeting civilians is a war crime and that, if widespread or systematic, it “amounts to crimes against humanity.” It also said insurgent groups in Homs had explicitly threatened to detonate car bombs if food was not allowed into the blockaded Old City.
Pictures shared by relatives on social media showed young boys injured in hospital beds, one with a bandaged leg and a shy smile. Antigovernment activists said Friday that pressure from Homs residents afraid of car bombs had pushed the government to agree to the cease-fire, in an effort to get Nusra fighters out of the city. Starting Saturday, they said, armed fighters will be allowed to go to insurgent-held villages north of Homs, where the activists expected the government to intensify attacks.
Human Rights Watch warned insurgents, as it has warned the government before, that targeting civilians is a war crime that, if widespread or systematic, “amounts to crimes against humanity.” On Friday, it urged the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo against all parties targeting civilians. The state news media had not announced the cease-fire by Friday evening. Past deals allowing insurgents to flee have been criticized by the core supporters of the Assad government.
But the outside world seems increasingly powerless to help Syrians. Peace talks are stalled, and on Wednesday the Security Council discussed the lack of compliance with its February resolution demanding unimpeded access to humanitarian aid. The polarized body is unlikely to agree on who should be subject to an arms embargoes: the Russian-backed government or an array of insurgents backed by the United States, its Arab allies or shadowy private donors.