At least 55 people have been killed and 372 others injured by two powerful blasts in the Syrian capital on Thursday morning. The car bombs detonated near a military intelligence building.

The blasts happened in quick succession during the morning rush hour, just as employees were arriving to work. An initial small explosion was followed by a much larger blast allegedly targeted at paramedics and security forces arriving at the scene, AP reports.

The explosion left two craters - three and six meters wide - in front of the military compound. The two cars were stuffed with more than 1,000 kilograms of explosives, said Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi.

Makdissi also said that in addition to 55 dead - some of them already identified - and 372 injured, there were at least 15 sets of unidentified remains, implying that the death toll was likely to rise. Syrian authorities have urged people to donate blood for the injured.

The blasts were branded a terrorist attack by state television and the authorities, but there has been no claim of responsibility yet.

UN observers inspected the site of the bombing. Peace envoy Kofi Annan condemned the deadly attacks, and called on all parties to halt the violence.

The EU Foreign Affairs office has condemned the attack as a "pure act of terrorism" because it targeted the maximum possible amount of casualties and collateral damage.
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© Reuters / SanaSmoke rises from the wreckage of mangled vehicles at the site of an explosion in Damascus May 10, 2012.

The UN Secretary General also condemned the attacks, and reiterated that the UN is "committed to continue doing all it can" to achieve the goals of "ending all violence and human rights violations" and promoting a "transition leading to a democratic and plural political system" in Syria.

A number of bomb attacks have happened in Syria since the UN-brokered ceasefire between loyalists troops and armed opposition forces was announced in mid-April.

The major latest attack occurred on April 27, when a bomber wearing a suicide vest set off an explosion near members of the security forces. The blast killed at least nine people and wounded 26.

On Wednesday, a roadside bomb went off in the country's south-west, just seconds after the UN observer team head passed by with his convoy. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that such incidents cast doubt over the observer mission's future.

Some foreign-based opposition groups have routinely been blaming the Bashar al-Assad government for masterminding these terrorist attacks to discredit the opposition. Damascus denies such allegations, saying radical militant groups funded, armed and trained by countries hostile to Syria are behind the violence.
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© AFP Photo / SYRIAN TVAn image grab taken from Syrian state television shows Syrians inspecting charred corpses at the site of twin blasts in Damascus on May 10, 2012.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov does not rule out the possibility of outside forces being involved in masterminding the Damascus attacks, either.

"At least some of our partners are doing some practical things aimed at exploding the situation [in Syria] both in a direct and indirect sense of the word. I mean the explosions you have mentioned," Lavrov commented on the blasts during a press conference in Beijing.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia have admitted that they support Syrian opposition financially. It is believed that Turkey is turning a blind eye on armed groups using Syrian refugee camps on Turkish territory near the border to rest and regroup before moving into Syria.

It seems armed opposition groups, which failed to take control over any part of the country and turn it into their base of operation, are now resorting to guerilla tactics to attack the government. A ceasefire and political solution to the conflict are not in their interest, because they want nothing short of a total collapse of the Assad regime.

The Syrian government is seeking resolution of the violent crisis, which has been ravaging the country for 15 months, through political reform. This week it held a parliamentary election, the first ballot in decades involving competing political parties.

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© Reuters / SanaPeople and security personnel try to remove a car from an explosion site in Damascus May 10, 2012.

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© AFP Photo / Louai BesharaSyrians inspect a crater at the site of twin blasts in Damascus on May 10, 2012.