Four guards killed, 14 others wounded in Damascus blasts

One of the bombs which struck the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday may have been planted inside a military complex, Information Minister Omran Zoabi told state television.
   
Video footage and pictures downloaded by activists showed flames engulfing the upper floors a Defense Ministry building by the Umayyad Square in central Damascus. Zoabi said the explosions caused only material damage.

Later in the day, an Islamic group assumed responsibility of the Damascus bombings, according to Agence France Press

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that violent clashes ensued inside the military complex. It also stated that at least 16 people in the Barzeh district of Damascus were executed at the hands of gunmen loyal to the "Syrian regime."

Meanwhile the correspondent for Iran's English-language Press TV was shot dead by a sniper in Syria and its Damascus bureau chief was wounded, Press TV reported on Wednesday.
   

International Positions:

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded that Iraq halt all flights that cross over Iranian territory heading to Syria on suspicion of carrying weapons to the Syrian regime.           

For his part,  Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II, considered that there is no alternative to a political solution in Syria, calling on the international community to provide more assistance to his country, which hosts more than 200 thousand refugees "to prevent a humanitarian tragedy" as winter approaches.              

This as the resignation of Special Adviser in the US State Department for Syria Frederick Hoff was stated during the gathering of world leaders in New York held in an attempt to put an end to the conflict in this region.            

A senior official at the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that he can confirm that he is about to retire.


REUTERS/LBCI