Turkey condemns Damascus bombings

Turkey condemned twin car bomb attacks in Syria's capital which targeted Syrian intelligence buildings, Today's Zaman reports.

Syrian government officials said the attacks prove their long time claims that the turmoil that has beset Syria for several months is not a popular uprising but the work of terrorists. At least 40 people were killed in the twin suicide car bomb blasts which ripped through an upscale Damascus district on Friday.

The blasts were the first suicide bombings in Syria since the uprising began in March.

“Irrespective of what its purpose is and irrespective of where it comes from, Turkey is against terrorism. Turkey considers the attacks in Damascus in this vein and thus condemns them,” a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Turkey has severely criticized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests and imposed a series of sanctions on the Syrian regime to pressure it to end violence against protesters. Some of the leaders of a group of army defectors, known as the Free Syrian Army, are based in Turkey.