UN car damaged in Syria blast, monitors say unhurt

A car belonging to United Nations monitors was damaged by an explosion while they toured the central Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday but none of the monitors was hurt, a member of the observer team said.      

The monitor told Reuters by telephone that the seven-strong team had lost their cars and were trying to organize a safe return to their base. Another monitor and a member of the Free Syrian Army said they were with FSA rebels.      

Also on Tuesday, a bomb explosion ripped through a main oil pipeline in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zor, opposition activists said.   

The pipeline carries crude oil to the Banias refinery on the Mediterranean coast, they said, adding that the attack occurred near the town of al-Mayadeen, scene of an army offensive to regain villages that had fallen under rebel control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that 43 people were killed in Syria on Tuesday, 20 of whom were shot while participating in a funeral procession in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib.  

Four people were killed earlier on Tuesday in the coastal city of Banias in a blast whose circumstances have not yet been determined.       

Meanwhile, two people were killed in Reef Damascus by pro-regime forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Five soldiers, including one defector, were also killed in Deir al-Zour by pro-regime forces.     

Khalaf al-Azzawi, head of the judiciary body that oversaw the parliamentary election, said 51 percent of eligible voters had turned out, down slightly from an election in 2007 when the rule of Assad's Baath party was unchallenged.                           

Earlier in the day, Al-Nusra Front denied on Tuesday in it had claimed responsibility for Damascus bombings last week. The unknown Islamist group added in a statement that the online video is fabricated.            

A video posted online in the name of a shadowy militant group late on Friday claimed responsibility for the attacks on Thursday. In the video, a group calling itself the Al-Nusra Front says the bombing was in response to attacks on residential areas by the regime of President Bashar Assad.           

The Al-Nusra Front has claimed past attacks through statements posted on militant websites.         

In international positions, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday that Kofi Annan’s mission in Syria might fail, hoping that the Russian position will eventually change towards adopting U.N. sanctions against the Assad regime.