Syrian Capital witnesses Deadly Blasts on Thursday
Syrian state TV says two bomb attacks have been carried out in the capital, Damascus, killing 40 people and wounding 170 others.
The “terrorist attacks” were carried out in the south of Damascus early on Thursday, the state TV said.
On May 9, a bomb attack also targeted a Syrian military truck escorting a convoy of UN observers near the southwestern city of Dara’a. Six Syrian soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Head of the UN mission Major General Robert Mood was also in the convoy, but neither he nor any of the other monitors sustained injuries.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about the attack in Dara’a on Wednesday. 
Ban called on the Syrian government and the opposition to “realize that we have a brief window to stop the violence, a brief opportunity to create an opening for political engagement between the government and those seeking change.”
The latest attacks in Damascus were conducted ten days after the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 people were killed and scores of others injured in two bomb attacks against the Air Force Intelligence headquarters and the Military Intelligence building in the northwestern city of Idlib on April 30.
A number of UN observers are currently monitoring a ceasefire in Syria that took effect on April 12.
The ceasefire was part of a six-point peace plan proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan in March.
The first group of the UN observers arrived in Damascus late on April 15. The observers were approved for the mission according to UNSC Resolution 2042 passed on April 14.
On April 21, the UN Security Council met and unanimously voted on Resolution 2043 to send a mission of 300 observers to Syria.
The Security Council “established, for an initial 90-day period, a supervision mission, to be known as UNSMIS, comprising an initial and expeditious deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers, including an appropriate civilian component and air transportation assets, to monitor a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties,” reads Resolution 2043.
