Car bomb kills two in Syria

BEIRUT – A car bomb explosion killed at least two people and injured 30 in the northern city of Aleppo, Syrian authorities said Sunday, raising fears of a new wave of deadly attacks as the rebellion against President Bashar Assad enters its second year.

The explosion in Aleppo, the nation’s business hub, came a day after two car bombs detonated in the capital, Damascus, officials said, reportedly killing 27 people and injuring almost 100.

Both Damascus and Aleppo are considered strongholds of support for Assad and, apart from car bomb attacks, have been largely spared the fighting seen in other areas.

The government blamed all three blasts on “terrorists,” its habitual characterization of forces seeking to oust Assad.

Opposition figures have denied any involvement and said the latest car bombings, like an earlier wave of such attacks, were government-orchestrated acts meant to discredit the uprising.

Sunday’s bombing in Aleppo occurred in the city’s Sulemaniyeh neighborhood, home to many Christians. The official news agency said the bomb went off near the “Latin Church.” It was not clear whether services were going on at the time.

News agencies said all three weekend bombs were detonated near security posts, the presumed targets.

Christians, like other Syrian minorities, have generally been viewed as supportive of Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Many minorities fear an Islamist takeover should armed rebels, mostly from the nation’s Sunni Muslim majority, manage to overthrow Assad.

Some observers say that Syria’s uprising is taking on an increasingly sectarian identity, pitting the Sunni Muslims against Assad’s Alawite sect, who are prominent in security services. But there have been no confirmed reports of Christians being targeted in a systematic way, as occurred in Iraq, where churches were bombed.

Also, “an armed terrorist group” reportedly shot 13 civilians to death in the village of Hasiba in Homs province. A railway bridge connecting Damascus with the city of Dara was blown up, the state news agency said.

The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition network, reported that at least 25 people were killed by security forces nationwide, including nine in Idlib province in the northwest and four each in Homs and suburban Damascus.