[h=3]By SAM DAGHER[/h]BEIRUT—A fuel tanker truck exploded Wednesday near a Damascus hotel used as the headquarters and residence of the United Nations observer mission to Syria, wounding three people, Syrian officials and state media said.
Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency shows firefighters dousing a blaze after an explosion in central Damascus on Wednesday.
Footage from the early morning attack broadcast by Syrian and Arab television stations showed a thick black plume of smoke billowing from the scene shortly after the blast. Later, firefighters were seen extinguishing fires in the parking lot of the Dama Rose hotel, with what appeared to be the fuel tanker and other vehicles nearby reduced to smoldering wreckage.
Syrian state media said a "terrorist armed group"—the term used by the regime for the rebels now waging an insurgency against it—had attached an explosive device to the fuel truck.
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mokdad met representatives of the U.N. mission staying at the hotel and said later that they were unscathed in the blast.
"I was informed the observers and the belongings of the mission have not been harmed, thanks be to God," he told reporters. "This is another criminal act that proves the onslaught facing Syria and the criminal and savage nature of those leading this onslaught and those backing them on the inside and outside," he added.
[h=3]Syria in the Spotlight[/h]Take a look back over the highlights of the past year in Syria in a timeline, and review the latest events in a map.
Mr. Mokdad said his government was proud of the fact that not a single member of the U.N. mission has been harmed since the start of their mandate in late April.
The unarmed observers, whose numbers have been almost cut in half from approximately 300, will end their work in Syria this Sunday. They were sent to Syria to monitor a cease-fire between government forces and opposition fighters, and pave the way for a six-point peace plan endorsed by the U.N. and the Arab League. But their mission is largely seen as a failure, because the warring sides took no meaningful steps to end the violence while Russia and China have remained at odds with the U.S. and the European states over ways to end the conflict.
Earlier this month Kofi Annan, the U.N. and Arab League special envoy to Syria, quit his task, citing his inability to implement the peace plan.
The Dubai-based and Saudi-owned news channel Al-Arabiya said responsibility for the blast was claimed by a group calling itself Ahfad al-Rasoul, or grandchildren of the Prophet Muhammad, and that the target was a military command building near the hotel. The claim couldn't immediately be verified.
—Nada Raad contributed to this article.
Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency shows firefighters dousing a blaze after an explosion in central Damascus on Wednesday.
Footage from the early morning attack broadcast by Syrian and Arab television stations showed a thick black plume of smoke billowing from the scene shortly after the blast. Later, firefighters were seen extinguishing fires in the parking lot of the Dama Rose hotel, with what appeared to be the fuel tanker and other vehicles nearby reduced to smoldering wreckage.
Syrian state media said a "terrorist armed group"—the term used by the regime for the rebels now waging an insurgency against it—had attached an explosive device to the fuel truck.
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mokdad met representatives of the U.N. mission staying at the hotel and said later that they were unscathed in the blast.
"I was informed the observers and the belongings of the mission have not been harmed, thanks be to God," he told reporters. "This is another criminal act that proves the onslaught facing Syria and the criminal and savage nature of those leading this onslaught and those backing them on the inside and outside," he added.
[h=3]Syria in the Spotlight[/h]Take a look back over the highlights of the past year in Syria in a timeline, and review the latest events in a map.
Mr. Mokdad said his government was proud of the fact that not a single member of the U.N. mission has been harmed since the start of their mandate in late April.
The unarmed observers, whose numbers have been almost cut in half from approximately 300, will end their work in Syria this Sunday. They were sent to Syria to monitor a cease-fire between government forces and opposition fighters, and pave the way for a six-point peace plan endorsed by the U.N. and the Arab League. But their mission is largely seen as a failure, because the warring sides took no meaningful steps to end the violence while Russia and China have remained at odds with the U.S. and the European states over ways to end the conflict.
Earlier this month Kofi Annan, the U.N. and Arab League special envoy to Syria, quit his task, citing his inability to implement the peace plan.
The Dubai-based and Saudi-owned news channel Al-Arabiya said responsibility for the blast was claimed by a group calling itself Ahfad al-Rasoul, or grandchildren of the Prophet Muhammad, and that the target was a military command building near the hotel. The claim couldn't immediately be verified.
—Nada Raad contributed to this article.