International Breaking News

Blast in Damascus punctuates end of failed three-day ceasefire marked by air strikes and firefights.

The deadly bombing in Damascus on Monday brought a bloody end to a failed attempt at a three-day ceasefire which was marked more by air strikes and firefights than a slowing of the conflict.
Lakhdar Brahimi, appointed by the Arab League and United Nations as envoy to Syria, had sought to get both rebels and President Bashar al-Assad to halt their fighting over the Eid al-Adha holiday. Instead, government jets and artillery bombarded opposition neighbourhoods and rebels launched attacks on military checkpoints.
Speaking in Moscow alongside Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Brahimi said he was "terribly sorry" that the ceasefire had failed and that the civil war was getting even worse.
He said the UN "is not considering" sending an armed peacekeeping force to Syria, though relevant officials were conducting contingency planning in case the Security Council ordered such a mission. That is highly unlikely, with Russia and China - two Council members - opposing any kind of international intervention.