Twin suicide car bomb blasts ripped through an upscale Damascus district on Dec. 23, targeting heavily guarded intelligence buildings and killing at least 40 people. The blasts came a day after an advance team of Arab League observers arrived in the country to monitor Syria’s promise to end its crackdown on protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad. The blasts were the first such suicide bombing in Syria since the uprising began in March.
An opposition leader raised doubts over the authorities’ version of the events, suggesting the regime was trying to make its case to the observers. Omar Idilbi, a member of the Syrian National Council, an umbrella group of regime opponents, called the explosions “very mysterious because they happened in heavily guarded areas that are difficult to be penetrated by a car.”“The presence of the Arab League advance team of observers pushed the regime to give this story in order to scare the committee from moving around Syria,” he said, though he stopped short of accusing the regime in the blasts.