Syrian prime minister escapes assassination bomb

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily defended capital yesterday, state media said, laying bare the vulnerability of President Bashar Assad's regime.

The bombing, which killed several other people, highlights an accelerating campaign targeting government officials, from midlevel civil servants to the highest echelons of the Syrian regime.

State television said Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was not hurt in the bombing, which struck his convoy as it drove through the posh Mazzeh neighborhood -- home to embassies, government officials and business elites with close ties to the regime.

Footage of the scene broadcast on state TV showed the charred hulks of cars and the burnt-out shell of a bus in a street littered with rubble.

The attack on al-Halqi punctuated a series of attacks on government officials in recent weeks. A government official said two people were killed and 11 wounded in the blast, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group put the death toll at five, including two of al-Halqi's bodyguards and a driver in his convoy.

The bombings and assassinations are part of the wider violence wracking Syria as the nation's conflict enters its third year. What is now a civil war has killed more than 70,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.

State TV quoted Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi as saying that targeting al-Halqi, who is in charge of carrying out a political program to end the nation's crisis, shows that some in the opposition "reject a political solution."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday's attack, but bombings like the one that struck the prime minister's convoy have been a trademark of Islamic radicals fighting in the rebel ranks, such as the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra.