DAMASCUS – A car bomb killed 12 people at a funeral in the mainly Druze and Christian suburb of Jaramana on the southeastern outskirts of the Syrian capital Tuesday, state television reported. “At around 3 pm (1200 GMT), a funeral procession was making its way to the cemetery, when a car parked on the side of the road exploded, killing and inuring many people," an army official said. The funeral was held for two supporters of the government of President Bashar Al-Assad who were killed in a bomb attack Monday, the Britain-based Observatory said. Several buildings in the area struck by the blast suffered heavy damage. The walls of some buildings were badly charred by the blast, in footage aired by pro-regime television channel Al-Ikhbariya, and the windows of apartments several stories up were shattered. An enraged woman dressed in a white tank-top came out of her home onto her balcony to shout down at onlookers at the scene of the blast: “Leave! Get out of here!" The attack came amid a escalation of army shelling targeting the eastern belt of Damascus that is home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army's best organized battalions. Meanwhile, the head of the main Syrian opposition group fighting to oust President Bashar Assad criticized US officials Tuesday for saying it was premature to speak about a transitional Syrian government. Abdelbaset Sieda said that the Syrian National Council is making “serious" preparations and consulting with other groups and rebels to form a government that could fill the leadership vacuum if Assad falls. – Agencies
