A suicide bomber in central Damascus has today killed 26 people and wounded 63, according to the Syrian government.
Television pictures showed footage of a damaged police bus in the Maidan district, along with people shouting that this was the work of terrorists. Several riot police shields could be seen in the wrecked bus, which was among several vehicles with smashed windows.
"We will strike back with an iron fist at anyone who is tempted to play with the security of the country or its citizens," Syria Television quoted Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar as saying.
Mr Shaar also said the death toll from the bombing in Damascus killed 26 people, one higher than an earlier toll. Fifteen bodies could not be identified after they were "torn to pieces in the blast", he said.
The ministry estimated that 63 people had been injured.
On December 23rd at least 44 people were killed by what the Syrian authorities said were two suicide bombings against security buildings in the Syrian capital.
Those attacks occurred the day before the arrival in Damascus of the head of an Arab League mission that is checking Syria's compliance with an Arab plan to halt President Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on nearly 10 months of unrest.
The latest blast precedes an Arab League meeting in Cairo scheduled for Sunday at which a special committee on Syria is due to debate the initial findings of the observer mission.
An opposition activist in Damascus said the pro-democracy movement had nothing to do with the Maidan attack, suggesting that Islamist militants might have been involved.
"It seems clear that there is a growing extremist Islamist presence in Syria these days and I think there are hundreds of these extremists willing to fight the regime and blow themselves up in the name of jihad," said the activist. "We will be seeing more and more of these explosions in Syria in the coming days, I am sorry to say," he added.
The Arab League chief today asked the Damascus-based leader of the Palestinian group Hamas to ask Syria to work to halt violence, saying there was more to do under a peace agreement aimed at ending a crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby was speaking alongside Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal after a meeting in Cairo.
"I gave him a message today to the Syrian authorities that it is necessary to work with integrity, transparency and credibility to halt the violence that is happening in Syria," Mr Elaraby said.
Mr Elaraby said there was still work to be done according to the agreement between the League and Syria to scale back its military presence in cities and free thousands of prisoners detained since the uprising began last March.
Syria has been racked by a popular uprising against Dr Assad in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed. The government says armed "terrorists" have killed 2,000 members of the security forces since the revolt began.
The Syrian government bars most international journalists from operating in the country, making it difficult to verify accounts of incidents.
Reuters