A damaged bus at the scene of a car bomb explosion in Syria's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, April. 29, 2013. Source: AP
SYRIAN Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has escaped an assassination bid, surviving a blast meant for his convoy in Damascus, in the latest attack on top members of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The attack came as Republicans in the United States stepped up calls for American action after claims Mr Assad's regime used chemical weapons against its population in a bid to repress the uprising now in its third year.
Syrian state television said Mr Halqi was unharmed in the blast on Monday in the Mazzeh district of the capital.
"The terrorist explosion in Mazzeh was an attempt to target the prime minister's convoy and Dr Wael al-Halqi was unharmed," state television reported, adding that the blast had caused casualties.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said one of Mr Halqi's bodyguards had been killed.
"A second bodyguard and the driver are in critical condition," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that the convoy appeared to have been targeted by a remotely-detonated car bomb.
State television said the explosion happened near a public garden and a school in the neighbourhood, a well-secured district that is home to embassies, government buildings, intelligence facilities and several political figures.
"I was walking in the street when suddenly there was a very powerful explosion and I saw a car burning and people running," a young man told AFP at the scene.
Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, April. 29, 2013.
"I heard glass shattering," he added, saying he had tried to hide for fear a second explosion would follow.
An AFP photographer at the scene said several vehicles were destroyed in the blast, including a bus burned out by the explosion. The windshields of other cars nearby were also blown out.
State television al-Ikhbariya broadcast footage of Mr Halqi attending a government meeting and giving a statement afterwards, but it was unclear whether the footage was from before or after the attack.
Mr Halqi, who was appointed prime minister in August 2012 after his predecessor Riad Hijab defected to the opposition, is the latest in a string of regime officials to be targeted for assassination.
In July 2012, a suicide bomb attack killed Syria's defence minister and deputy defence minister and left the country's interior minister seriously wounded.
The capital has also been targeted in several major bombings, including an explosion on April 9 in the centre of the city which killed at least 15 people.
The attack against Mr Halqi came as US Republican legislators piled pressure on the administration to take action over Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons.
But despite the criticism of US President Barack Obama's failure to do more, there was little agreement on precisely how the United States should act.
"We need to get involved. And there's a growing consensus in the US Senate that the United States should get involved," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on CBS's Face the Nation.
But he acknowledged that "Syria is difficult," and any action would be risky.
And international consensus remains elusive, with Russia standing by the Syrian regime and warning Monday that a search for weapons of mass destruction should not be used an excuse to oust Mr Assad.
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