Homs And Damascus Bombing In Syria Left 140 Dead
The radical jihadist group Islamic State also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in Damascus and Homs that killed 140 people and dozens more wounded.
Four explosions near the revered Shia Muslim shrine of Sayyida Zeinab reportedly left at least 83 people dead in the capital Damascus and 178 more injured. In Homs, 57 were killed in a twin car blasts in places identified as Shia-populated areas so reviled by Sunni extremists who dismissed the Shiites as being heretics.
"A man detonated the bomb on his body. Another five to seven minutes later, a second man detonated his body bomb there. I was right here looking at him," remarked a Muhannad, a Damascus resident who recalled the incident as quoted by BBC.
According to a report by CNN, the recent bombing was the fourth recorded incident in Homs which has seen a string of similar attacks carried out by ISIS in the past three months. On January 26, a coordinated car and suicide bombing left 24 people dead and 100 wounded. Last year, twin explosions also rocked Shiite-populated neighborhood on December 12 and 28.
Meanwhile, US and Russia appeared to have reached a draft ceasefire agreement between the Assad-led Syrian government and the opposition.
The proposed deal called on all warring sides to abide by the agreement on February 26 and implement a cessation of hostilities by midnight the next day.
"There is a will now on the part of the Russians and the Americans to move forward on this...I think the Americans are quite fed up and they really wanted something a couple of weeks ago. Moscow is running out of targets in Syria and it knows all too well it cannot continue with the same old game that started on September 30 without any concrete results," said Al Jazeera's senior political analyst Marwan Bishara regarding his take on the draft agreement.
