June 18, 2013
The head of Syrian's main opposition group says the twin suicide car bombings that killed 55 people in Damascus appeared to be the work of al-Qaida forces he says are linked to the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Burhan Ghalioun says (at a news conference in Tokyo) the cease-fire brokered by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan was "in crisis" because it lacks teeth to punish non-compliance. The Paris-based Ghalioun is chief of the opposition Syrian National Council.
Assad's regime has blamed Thursday's attacks on terrorists it says are behind the 14-month uprising.
But Ghalioun said the bombers were "radical forces" linked to Syrian leadership, which he said had cooperated with al-Qaida against U.S. forces in Iraq.
