Blast targets Syrian military; 6 soldiers wounded

[May 09, 2012]  DARAA, Syria (AP) -- A roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck Wednesday, wounding six soldiers just seconds after a convoy carrying the head of the U.N. observer mission passed by.

An Associated Press reporter who was traveling in the U.N. convoy said the blast cracked the military truck's windows and caused a plume of black smoke. The U.N. convoy was not hit.

The attack was "a graphic experience that the Syrian people live with every day," the head of the U.N. observer mission, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, told reporters.

He said the observers' work will continue as usual.

The blast went off after Mood headed into this southern city, the birthplace of the Syrian uprising, with a convoy of monitors and journalists. The explosion was more than 100 meters (330 feet) behind the convoy.

"We were driving behind the U.N. convoy as protection when a roadside bomb exploded, wounding a 1st Lieutenant and five troops," a soldier who asked to be identified only by his first name, Yahya, told The Associated Press at the scene.

At least three bloodied soldiers were rushed away.

Mood said he does not know whether the blast was meant to target the observers or the military.

"For me the important thing is really not speculating about who was the target, what was the target, but it is to make the point that this is what the Syrian people (are) seeing every day and it needs to stop," he said. "Whomever is doing it and whomever is supporting it."

It's not clear who was behind the bombing.

But Syria's rebel leader, Col. Riad al-Assad, threatened to resume attacks because the government has not honored a cease-fire, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Wednesday. Al-Assad told the paper that "our people are demanding that we defend them."

The comments were published in Wednesday's edition of the paper and could deal yet another blow to a peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan, which calls for a truce monitored by observers to pave the way for negotiations for a resolution.

On Tuesday, Annan gave a bleak assessment of the crisis in Syria, saying violence remains at "unacceptable levels" and warning that his peace plan is the country's last chance to avert a disastrous civil war.

Annan insisted there is still hope and said the presence of U.N. observers has had a calming effect on the crisis, which has killed at least 9,000 people since March 2011.

"There is a profound concern that the country could otherwise descend into full civil war and the implications of that are frightening," Annan told reporters in Geneva after briefing a closed-door session of the U.N. Security Council in New York by videoconference. The observer mission, he said, "is the only remaining chance to stabilize the country."

Annan's efforts have been troubled from the start. A truce that was to begin on April 12 has never really taken hold. About 60 U.N. observers are currently in Syria, and Annan said that a full deployment of 300 should be on the ground by the end of the month.

Syria has become one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Arab Spring, and world powers have been unable to stop the violence. Syrian President Bashar Assad still has a firm grip on power, and his regime portrays his opponents as terrorists out to weaken the country.

Although the death toll mounts daily, the U.N. has ruled out any military intervention of the type that helped bring down Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, in part out of fears that it could make the conflict worse. Syria is an important geopolitical linchpin with a web of allegiances to powerful forces, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and close ally Iran.

Also Wednesday, bullets flying across the Syrian border into Lebanon killed a 70-year-old woman and wounded her daughter, Lebanese security officials said.

The two were near a mosque in the village of al-Qaa in northeastern Lebanon near the Syrian border when the shooting happened. The older woman was shot once in the head and once in the chest and died soon after, the officials said. Her daughter was shot in the stomach, but the wound was not life-threatening.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under government rules.

[Associated Press; By BASSEM MROUE]

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