Syria: Damascus car bomb injures three

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A car bomb in central Damascus wounded three people Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. "The blast in Marjah Square near the Iranian Cultural Center left blood and shattered glass on the road," the news wire wrote. 

A separate attack, which killed three intelligence officers, occurred Tuesday in the Barzeh neighborhood of Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group that counts Syria dead and wounded, reported the killings. No other information was available.

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Since a "cease-fire" went into effect nearly two weeks ago, both Syrian forces and rebel fighters have reportedly engaged in hostilities. Tbe BBC reported a "sharp increase" in the level of violence over the past 12 days. Before the cease-fire, shelling and gunbattles across Syria were widespread and casualties were in the dozens daily. Since then, the violence level dropped, but it has slowly ramped up again even as United Nations monitors tour the country. The BBC wrote almost 70 people were killed yesterday.

In Qusayr, Syria, the most wanted terrorist in Lebanon, Abdel Ghani Jawhar, "accidentally" blew himself up while planting a bomb on Friday, according to Time. The explosion raises the specter of Islamist influence in the Syrian opposition. Lebanese security forces confirmed that Jawhar, who was wanted for his part in the Nahr al-Bared siege in 2008, had escaped to Syria.

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"'He escaped as always,' sighs a senior intelligence official who says that Jawhar had been nicknamed 'mercury' for his uncanny ability to evade arrest," Time wrote.

“If his death is confirmed then we lost a big catch, he was a real treasure trove of information,” the official said.