Syrian Prime Minister Survives Blast, State TV Reports
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al- Halaqi survived a bomb explosion that killed at least six people as his convoy traveled through Damascus, state television said.
At least 15 people were wounded in the blast in the capitals Mazzeh district, the television stations website said. The dead included a bodyguard, Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said by phone, while a second bodyguard and a driver were injured. Five civilians also died in the blast, the Coventry, England-based Observatory said on its Facebook page, citing unidentified medical sources.
The attack on such a high-ranking figure, while significant, does not signal any change in Syrias strategic stalemate, said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peaces Middle East Center in Beirut.
The situation in the country is for the moment moving into kind of semi-static zones of influence, Salem said in a phone interview. Nobody seems to be on the imminent brink of sweeping the country.
The blast was the first reported attack against a top Syrian official since July, when a bomb killed members of Assads top military establishment leading the fight against the Syrian insurgency. They included Assads brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, Defense Minister Dawoud Rajhah and the vice presidents military adviser, Hasan Turkmani. The men remain the most senior officials to be killed since the uprising started in March 2011.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-29/syrian-prime-minister-survives-blast-state-tv-reports.html