At least 24 people killed in three coordinated car bombs in Syria’s Idlib province

At least 24 people were killed, most of them government forces, in three coordinated car bombs in Syria's Idlib province, a violence monitor said on Wednesday, a day after explosions killed more than 87 people in Aleppo University.
   
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of sources in Syria, said one of the car bombs targeted government vehicles near a building used by one of President Bashar al-Assad's domestic security agencies.

This after Russia had condemned the blasts that rocked the Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, blaming the explosions on "terrorist" it said were seeking revenge for losses in the conflict with government forces.    

"We condemn the latest mass killing in most decisive way," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement about the blasts on Tuesday at an Aleppo university. It called the explosions "revenge by terrorists for significant losses they have sustained in the confrontation with government forces."

In turn, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's commitment to cooperate with Syria, stressing that that the Syrian people will successfully overcome the current difficult situation.

During a meeting with the Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki in Tehran, he urged that the only solution to the conflict is by ending the fighting, reaching national agreement and organizing elections in Syria.

For his part, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack at Aleppo University that killed scores of students and warned that the deliberate targeting of civilians was a war crime.   

"Such heinous attacks are unacceptable and must stop immediately. All combating parties in Syria must abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law," Ban said in a statement. "Deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian targets constitutes a war crime."

World Food Program

For its part, the World Food Program (WFP) has received permission from the Syrian government to use dozens of additional local aid agencies to try to reach the 2.5 million people deemed hungry in the war-torn country, its chief said on Wednesday.    

The United Nations food agency has only been able to reach a maximum of 1.5 million people within Syria each month due to fighting and a lack of local partners capable of delivering aid.    

"What we did not have in the past was permission from the government to formally develop relationships with additional NGO partners. We have now been given that authority from the government," WFP executive-director Ertharin Cousin told a news briefing.

Foreign Policy magazine report

On another context, the United States on Tuesday poured cold water on a media report that chemical weapons had been used in the Syrian conflict, but reiterated that if Syrian President Bashar al Assad's government did resort to these weapons, it would be held to account.    

"The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program," White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.    

He was responding to a report in Foreign Policy magazine that a secret US State Department cable had concluded the Syrian military likely used poison gas against its own people in a deadly attack last month.    

The Foreign Policy report said US diplomats in Turkey had investigated claims that Assad forces used chemical weapons, and had made a compelling case that poison gas had indeed been used.    

The results of that probe were outlined in a cable that was signed by the US consul general in Istanbul and sent to the State Department in Washington last week, the magazine said.

REUTERS/LBCI