Syria, (GRAPHIC) Suicide Bomb Attack in Damascus killing Twenty Five Injuring Forty Six. 6.1.2012

A SUICIDE bomb attack ripped through central Damascus last night, killing at least 25 people and wounding 46.

Syrian television said the attack took place in the Damascus suburb of Midan.

A Syrian official said the target appeared to be a bus carrying police, and the bomb detonated near a school. The casualties were mostly civilians, and some security personnel.

TV showed footage of rescuers gathering body parts in the streets in an area where damaged cars and buses could be seen splattered with blood. It showed a damaged bus that had blood on its seats, and carried police helmets.

"This is a criminal terrorist act," a man shouted.

The SANA news agency reported casualties among civilians and security personnel.

"The attack took place in a heavily populated working-class neighbourhood near a school," the state television said. "It killed and wounded dozens of people."
The privately-owned Dunia television channel, which is close to the authorities, said that an Arab League observer team went to the scene of the bombing but made no comments to journalists at the scene.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist group that has organised anti-regime protests since March, said in a statement to AFP in Cyprus last night that another explosion was heard in the Damascus suburb of Tal.

Two weeks ago, 44 people were killed in a similar attack.

The powerful December 23 bombings sparked a swirl of claims and counter-claims over who was responsible, with the authorities saying they were the work of al-Qa'ida and the opposition blaming the regime.

The latest attack came ahead of planned mass protests by pro-democracy activists to demand the Arab League observer mission, in Syria for two weeks, admit its failure to stem nearly 10 months of bloodshed and hand over to the UN.

There has been no let-up in security force fire against civilian demonstrators with two killed last night in Hama and 10 wounded in the southern city of Daraa, cradle of the protests that erupted in mid-March, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP in Nicosia.

Protests were also reported in Syria's second city Aleppo and third city Homs, in the port city of Latakia, in Deir Ezzor in the northeast and in Douma on the northern outskirts of the capital.

In Homs, a 36-year-old was killed by a security force bullet while sitting on his balcony, the Observatory added.

A team of Arab League observers has been in Syria since December 26 trying to assess whether President Bashar al-Assad's regime is complying with a peace accord aimed at ending its deadly crackdown on dissent.

The "Syrian Revolution 2011" group, one of the driving forces on the internet behind the uprising, called on Facebook for demonstrations after Friday prayers to urge the "internationalisation of our cause".

The appeal for people to take to the streets following the main weekly Muslim prayers comes ahead of an Arab League meeting on Sunday to discuss the mission, which has come in for scathing criticism this week.

The UN estimates more than 5000 people have been killed in the crisis since March, and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces killed another 17 civilians on Thursday.

Opposition groups have criticised the monitors and say the authorities control them