Multiple bomb blasts have rocked the Syrian capital of Damascus, a
mortar attack on Syrian TV among them, reports RT's correspondent at the
scene.
Suicide bombers blew up two booby-trapped cars near the General Organization of Radio and TV in Damascus, state TV reported.
RT
correspondent Paula Slier said that two security guards were confirmed
dead in the blasts while two suicide bombers died in their cars.
"Within
the last 20 minutes there were two massive explosions in downtown
Damascus. It seems that one was right in front of the Syrian TV and we
are seeing some footage being circulated on line by the rebels saying
that their target is the Syrian TV," said Slier.
But Syrian state news agency SANA said that there were no casualties while blaming the blasts on "terrorists".
Syrian
TV showed footage of what appeared to be two burning vehicles, a fire
engine and a building which had had its windows burnt out.
Slier
added that the rebels have published a video on internet saying they
will target the Syrian TV building. She also said that rebels had
warned civilians to stay away from all military checkpoints in the city,
prior to the blasts, which were just two minutes apart.
One more
blast targeted the Four Seasons Hotel, where the foreign chemical
weapons experts are staying, said Slier on her Twitter account.
While
in April 23 people were killed in two explosions. In one of them, the
Syrian Prime Minister, Wael Halqi, narrowly escaped with his life.
Nineteen
inspectors from the United Nations and Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are currently working in Syria, investing
the use of chemical weapons during the country's ongoing civil war.
They
will have to check about twenty sites as another group of twelve
international experts is preparing to leave for Syria to speed up the
process.
The government began destroying the first chemical weapons
last week while in accordance to the US-Russian deal made during Geneva
talks last month the elimination program has to be completed by June 30,
2014.
Bombings are a fairly regular occurrence in Damascus,
although by no means as regular as in Iraq. One of the latest blast hit
the Russian embassy compound last month, injuring three people.
