Activists say bomb near Shiite shrine in Damascus kills six

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A bomb killed at least six people on Wednesday near a Shi'ite shrine in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, state media and opposition activists said.

State media said 13 people were also wounded in the explosion in the Sayeda Zainab district.

The semi-official Addounia television said the bomb was placed in a garbage bag. Another bomb in the area was defused, the station said.

The poor neighborhood, inhabited by a mix of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, is marked by the colored tile and mirror shrine, located near several security compounds, as well as an office for Shi'ite Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Activists say Syrian warplanes are pounding opposition strongholds around Damascus and in the north, as the regime of President Bashar Assad intensifies airstrikes against rebels seeking to topple him.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers reports from a network of activists, says government jets conducted five strikes Wednesday morning in the eastern Ghouta district, a rebel stronghold close to the capital. Three airstrikes also hit the rebel-held city of Maaret al-Numan, which straddles a key supply route from Damascus to Aleppo in the country's north.

No casualties were reported in Wednesday's strikes, the Observatory said.

However, at least 185 people were killed Tuesday, pushing the total death toll from the relentless fighting in Syria to over 36,000, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the group's president.

International positions:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said from Paris that the “bloodbath” in Syria will continue so long as the West’s position on the Syrian crisis remains unchanged.

Earlier on Wednesday, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, met with the Chinese foreign minister Wednesday to solicit support from Beijing in international efforts to ending Syria's civil war.

The international mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, told Yang Jiechi in opening their meeting that he hoped "China can play an active role in solving the events in Syria." Reporters were then ushered out of the room.

Brahimi's meeting in Beijing comes days after an internationally sanctioned truce that Brahimi proposed failed to take hold. More than 500 people were killed in fighting during what was supposed to be a four-day cease-fire ending Monday.

Activists say 35,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011.

The international community remains at a loss about how to stop the war. The U.S. and other Western and Arab nations have called on Assad to step down, while Russia, China and Iran continue to back him.

In the past weeks, anti-regime activists say about 150 people have been killed a day in fighting.

AP /REUTERS

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