New attack in Damascus suburb with many Christian and Druse residents

September 04, 2012: A carbomb exploded Monday morning in Jaramana, a suburb ten km southeast of the capital that has a large Christian and Druse population, wounding many. No one has claimed responsibility, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported, but many pro-Assad regime supporters live in the neighbourhood. On 28 August, another blast in the same area claimed 27 lives and scores of wounded.

Sources told AsiaNews that the situation is getting more dangerous by the day, but that Christians have not been targeted. "Sunni Muslims live in the area as well," they said. "The bombs in Jaramana hit military buildings and Christian officials loyal to the regime. The conflict is between rebels and the regime, Sunnis vs Alawis, not between Muslims and Christians. Everyone is a victim of the war."

"In the neighbourhoods spared by the fighting, people try to survive as best they can, but everyone is afraid that the whole city and other regions of Syria might be engulfed in the conflict. This would throw the entire country into chaos." Violent attacks were also reported in Aleppo today, where the military shelled al-Bab, killing 25 people, including many women and children. "The real problem is the propaganda spread by both government and rebels," sources noted. "This means that Syrians are under a dual totalitarian regime in which everyone is lying."

The international community is too divided, the sources bemoan, and is incapable of imposing a ceasefire on rebel forces and Assad's army. In a recent statement carried by Syrian media, the Syrian leader said that he would resist with all means at his disposal. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League envoy, who replaced Kofi Annan, told the BBC "I know how difficult it is - how nearly impossible. I can't say impossible - [it is] nearly impossible."

An Algerian career diplomat, Brahimi said he was "scared of the weight of responsibility" on his shoulders and was aware that not enough is being done to end the violence through diplomacy. Since it began in March 2011 in the wake of the Arab spring, the Syrian crisis has left more than 20,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees, 120,000 outisde of the country in camps built by Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon as well as internatonal organisations. However, the never-ending flow of people is bringing most camps to the brink of collapse. A few days ago, Turkey closed its border to prevent more Syrian refugees from crossing into its territory.