Syrian prime minister survives assassination attempt

Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi has survived an assassination attempt after bomb attacks targeted his vehicle downtown Damascus.

The bombs were detonated in the al-Mazzeh neighborhood of the capital on Monday as Halqi’s vehicle was passing through the area.

Three bodyguards of the Syrian prime minister and the driver of the vehicle were killed in the blasts.

On April 23, gunmen carried out another car bomb attack in Damascus, but no casualties were reported. The blast caused material damage to a number of nearby vehicles.

A day earlier, a bomb explosion hit the town of al-Mleiha near Damascus, injuring many people. The attacks reportedly targeted a Syrian military checkpoint.

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 turmoil. Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad recently said, “If the unrest in Syria leads to the partitioning of the country, or if the terrorist forces take control… the situation will inevitably spill over into neighboring countries and create a domino effect throughout the Middle East and beyond.”

On Sunday, the militant groups suffered major losses as the Syrian army continued its operations on the outskirts of the capital. Two militant commanders were among those gunmen killed by Syrian forces during the operations.

The turmoil has also taken its toll on the humanitarian situation in Syria.

On April 18, UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos and High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council that a quarter of Syria’s more than 22 million people are displaced within the country and 1.3 million have fled to other states in the Middle East and North Africa.

Amos said children are among the ones who “suffer most” and they have been “murdered, tortured and subjected to sexual violence” by the militants.