Fresh killings mar fragile cease-fire

DAMASCUS - Agence France-Presse

President al-Assad performs Eid al-Adha Prayers in Damascus. EPA photo

At least five people were killed and dozens wounded in a car bomb attack in southern Damascus on Oct. 26, marring a ceasefire that began on the same day.

“The explosion of a booby-trapped car outside the Omar bin Khattab mosque in the area known as Shorta in the Daf Shawk district killed and wounded dozens of people,” activists said.

Earlier in the day, four people were killed by tank fire and snipers in Harasta, a town near Damascus.

Gunfire and explosions echoed over Douma, just east of the capital. Rockets killed one person in the besieged Khalidiya district of Homs.

Heavy clashes erupted at a checkpoint near the army barracks of Mahlab in the northern city of Aleppo. Rebels again attacked an army base at Wadi al-Daif, near the Damascus-Aleppo highway.

Heavy machinegun fire and mortar explosions were audible along the Turkey-Syrian border near the Syrian town of Haram, a Reuters witness in the Turkish border village of Beşaslan. Rebels in the northern town near the Turkish border said a sniper had killed one of their fighters.