DAMASCUS — A rocket-propelled grenade exploded near a team of UN observers in a Damascus suburb Sunday, the military said, as clashes between regime troops and armed rebels raged in and around the Syrian capital.
No one was hurt in the Douma blast, which came as UN truce mission head Maj. Gen. Robert Mood and peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous were leading a team of observers around the north Damascus suburb.
But elsewhere in the country at least 48 people were killed, including 34 in in an assault by Syrian regime forces on a village in central Hama province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Regime forces rained shells on the village of Souran in Hama, it said, describing the deaths as a “massacre” and urging UN truce observers to deploy immediately in the area.
The device in Douma, a rocket propelled-grenade according to a Syrian army officer in the area, exploded just a few dozen meters from the UN team.
The UN observers did not comment on the nature of the explosion, but urged all parties to stop fighting. “I think this is clearly one of these situations where it is absolutely imperative that all parties exercise restraint and do not engage in any more fighting,” said Ladsous.
He lamented failure by all parties in Syria to respect a UN-backed ceasefire which technically went into effect on April 12, days only before the first UN observers arrived to monitor the truce.
“There is not a ceasefire. But there has been a decrease in the level of violence... in large part thanks to the presence of the UN observers. It is clear at the same time that the ceasefire is not complete,” Ladsous said.
Fierce clashes between troops and rebels determined to oust President Bashar Al-Assad had been underway in Douma and other parts of the Syrian capital since the early hours of the day, activists said.
The Britain-based observatory said regime forces shelled the outskirts of Douma overnight with rockets crashing into the suburb during the day. A civilian was also shot dead in Douma by a sniper.
Sunday’s blast follows several other close calls for the UN monitors since they deployed in Syria. Mood said there were around 260 observers on the ground.
On May 16, a convoy of UN observers was struck by a homemade bomb in the central city of Homs, damaging three vehicles but causing no casualties. — AFP
