Damascus car bomb leaves some 50 civilians dead

        
A car bomb struck the central Damascus district of Mazraa on Thursday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, killing and injuring dozens including children and the General Secretary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Nayef Hawatmeh. An official in the front media office asserted that Hawatmeh sustained minor injuries in the hands and face due to the glass scattering caused by the explosion.       

Some sources said that the number of those killed reached 53. The Syrian state TV said that the blast occurred near a school in al-Thawra Street in the outskirts of al-Mazraa neighborhood.  

The blast destroyed nearby homes and according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, took place near an office of President Bashar al-Assad's ruling Baath Party.  Also in Damascus, two mortars were fired on the army’s Chief of Staff Headquarters in the Umayyad Square, according to Al Ekhbariya al Souria TV which pointed out that the building is under maintenance and was targeted by two bombs in the past.    

Later in the day, Russian News Agencies mentioned that the explosion broke the windows of the Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital without causing any injuries among the embassy's employees. 

On the other hand, Syrian warplanes bombed the old district of Deraa city on Thursday for the first time in the country's 23-month-old revolt, killing 18 people, activists said.   

A rebel officer in the Tawheed al-Janoub brigade which led a rebel offensive this week in Deraa, cradle of the uprising which erupted against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, said there were at least five air strikes on the city on Thursday.

This as 18 people were killed when a warplane raided a field hospital in the city of Deraa in southern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.      

On another note, hundreds of hostages which were kidnapped at the end of last week in northwestern Syria were released on Thursday, the Observatory reported. 


Positions:

Meanwhile, the Syrian National Coalition, which condemned the Damascus bomb explosion, said it is willing to negotiate a peace deal to end the war tearing apart the pivotal Arab country but President Bashar al-Assad cannot be a party to any settlement, a communiqué drafted for a major opposition meeting said.  The communiqué, seen by Reuters, omitted a direct demand for Assad's removal, in a softening of tone from past positions that insisted the president must go before there could be any talks.    

The document, to be debated at a meeting of the opposition alliance's leadership starting on Thursday, said Assad and his cohorts must be held accountable for bloodshed and that any peace deal must be under the auspices of the United States and Russia.    

Damascus accused al Qaeda-affiliated armed "terrorist" groups of carrying out explosions in Damascus.

This as, Qatar offered humanitarian aid worth 100 million dollars for Syrians, in a first batch of the 900 million dollars Gulf countries pledged to offer. 


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