[MCBR]

A massive suicide bombing in Syria, timed to explode during the height of the city's rush hour, caused at least 55 people to be killed and some 350 to be wounded. The blast is the latest installment in the country's ongoing civil war.

Syria's fragile, United Nations-backed cease fire, if it can even be called a cease fire, could be in grave jeopardy after a deadly suicide bombing struck a major Syrian intelligence facility.

The strike, which has killed at least 50 people and wounded hundreds more, was timed right for rush hour when the most people would be on the street and near the doors where the bomb blast was triggered.

According to The New York Times, the explosion in front of the Syrian intelligence building left "a grisly scene on the crowded highway in front of it, with incinerated corpses and many burning vehicles emitting plumes of black smoke visible across the capital. Pictures of the gruesome, bloody wreckage with severed body parts scattered about were shown repeatedly on state television."

The blast was believed to be caused, according to various reports, by more than 2,200 pounds of explosives packed into two vehicles.

According to the Times, the attack is the deadliest by rebels since their efforts to force President Bashar al Assad from power more than a year ago.

“This is yet another example of the suffering brought upon the people of Syria from acts of violence,” Norwegiean Maj. Gen. Robert Mood said, according to the Times. “We, the world community, are here with the Syrian people, and I call on everyone within and outside Syria to help stop this violence.”

Wood is heading up the U.N. peacekeeping mission.

According to the BBC, U.N. special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan harshly criticized the suicide bombing as abhorrent. Annan created a peace plan that, ostensibly, was agreed to by all sides, but so far has proven elusive.

Overnight, for example, the key city of Homs was shelled by Syrian forces, the BBC said.

The targeted building is home to "the Palestine Branch, one of the most feared among the more than 20 secret police organisations in the country, correspondents say. The unit was originally set up in the 1950s to interrogate suspected Israeli spies," the BBC wrote.

It's evolved into the country's counter-terrorism force, widely known for using torture in its interrogations.

Proving just how on-edge Syria is, one Damascus resident told the BBC that the blasts were the largest he'd ever heard.

"The whole of Damascus heard them. At first, I thought they were air strikes," he said to the British broadcaster.

Raw video here: http://www.pri.org/stories/world/mid...nded-9820.html

[Zambini]

Yes, The UN is there and has brokered a cease fire, but the residents don't want that.

Isn't Islam GREAT?!?!?

[Faline]

Will it ever end in Syria

[Steve]

The UN are just glorified spectators, they broker a ceasefire that is ignored it's all just posturing on the UN's part.

[Zambini]

Originally Posted by Stevee ↗

The UN are just glorified spectators, they broker a ceasefire that is ignored it's all just posturing on the UN's part.

Isn't that their role? Should the UN invade Syria?

It's a civil war, Syria hasn't been invaded by another nation.

That's been the problem in the region for a long time, other countries getting involved where they shouldn't.

It will end when Syrians get tired of killing Syrians, not before.

Getting involved in civil wars just prolongs the issue.

[Oswald2001]

The Arabs have been like this for 1,000's of years.

They LOVE this.

They CAUSE it because they WANT it.

This is their twisted sick evil backware 'culture'.

The Moo Slum con job was invented by a child molesting psychopath to fit this 'cultural' pathology like a glove.

Let them kill each other and stay far far away from them.