Syria: Twin suicide bombs shake capital, kill 40

This image made from amateur video and made available by Ugarit News Group Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, purports to show an armored vehicle in Damascus, Syria. The Associated Press cannot independently verify the content, date, location or authenticity of this material. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Twin suicide car bombs blasted outside two buildings of Syria’s powerful intelligence agencies Friday, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 100, authorities said, in the first such attacks since the country was thrown into turmoil by the 9-month-old uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad.
The government quickly held up the explosions as proof of its claims that it is battling not a popular uprising but terrorists intent on overthrowing the regime. But its opponents cast doubt on its account, hinting that the regime itself could be behind the attack to make its case to Arab observers who arrived in the country only a day earlier.