Heavy clashes frighten residents in Syria capital

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke and fire billowing from an explosion in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. Heavy fighting erupted in Damascus Wednesday as government forces tried to hold back a new rebel effort to push the civil war into the heart of the Syrian capital, activists said.(AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

By BEN HUBBARD

Associated Press / February 6, 2013

Text Size:

E-mail

Page 2 of 2 --

All videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other reporting by The Associated Press.

The state news agency confirmed the blasts but said two suicide bombers blew up their cars near a garage, killing and wounded an unspecified number of people.

No one claimed responsibility for the blasts. Some rebel groups have acknowledged carrying out suicide attacks on government targets.

The government blamed the blasts on ‘‘terrorists’’ — its blanket term for the opposition.

Activists also reported fierce clashes near the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels have attacked army convoys heading to a military complex near the town of al-Safireh. At least 12 fighters were killed there, the Observatory said, while a shell attack on the nearby city of al-Bab killed five members of the same family.

More than 60,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict started in March 2011. Some 700,000 people have fled to neighboring countries and more than 2 million remain displaced inside Syria.

____

Associated Press writer Albert Aji and a Syrian journalist contributed reporting from Damascus, Syria.