Foreign-backed militants kill five in Damascus bombings

At least five people have been killed after foreign-backed militants attacked two security compounds in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Reports say one of the attacks targeted a police station in the northern Damascus neighborhood of Rukn al-Din. Three people, including civilians and police officers, were killed in the first explosion which went off behind a bakery near the police station.

The second incident involved mortar rounds which targeted a security compound in Bab Musalla, leaving at least two others dead.

Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government forces, have been killed in the violence.

On June 22, foreign ministers of the countries supporting the militants fighting the Syrian government, including Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, agreed to provide the insurgents with weapons.

The top officials agreed to “provide urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment to the opposition on the ground, each country in its own way in order to enable them to counter brutal attacks by the regime and its allies and protect the Syrian people.”

They also agreed “to channel all military support by relevant countries through the Staff Chairmanship of the Syrian Supreme Military Council.”

On Friday, the militants announced that they had received new weapons that could lead to “change” in the war against the Syrian government.

On June 14, US President Barack Obama ordered his administration to provide the militants in Syria with more sophisticated weapons, claiming that the Syrian government had used “chemical weapons” against the militants and thus crossed Washington’s “red line.”

Last month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said militants from as many as 29 different countries were fighting against Syria.