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© AFPWednesday's attacks were the fourth time Jaramana was targeted by the West's Al Qaeda agents since August
Two explosions in eastern Damascus have left at least 34 dead, according to Syrian hospital officials.

The state-run SANA news agency said two cars packed with explosives detonated early on Wednesday morning in the capital's eastern Jaramana district, populated mostly by the Christian and Druze minorities.

Among the dead were 10 unidentified bodies, according to SANA. Another 83 people were reported be injured.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, said: "When people gathered to try to rescue those injured in the first explosion, another big explosion took place."

Local residents said the series of bomb attacks took place at 6:30am (04:30 GMT) in a location where forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, are stationed to defend the area against the armed opposition.

"Terrorists blew up two car bombs filled with a large amount of explosives in [Jaramana's] main square... killing and wounding several residents, and damaging several residential buildings and shops," state media reported.

There was a ball of fire at the end of a narrow lane, and the impact of the explosions brought walls down onto cars, crushing them and scattering debris over the ground. Pools of blood were seen in the middle of the street.

The opposition, however, said Wednesday's attacks, the fourth time the area is targeted since August, could have been orchestrated by the regime to turn the minorities against opposition groups.

"The government has its own logic ... [that] most of the rebels are Salafists", who would be hostile to the Christian and Druze communities, said our correspondent.


Comment: The Syrian government is correct in its assessment that most of the Syrian 'rebels' are religious extremists brought in from elsewhere by Western military intelligence agents.

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The government, said Al Jazeera's Amin, is "using everything at its disposal" to hold on to Damascus, which is considered to be a "last bastion" for Assad.

Hospital officials warned of an increasing death toll as many of the wounded are said to be in critical condition.

Downed aircraft

Elsewhere in the country, opposition fighters reportedly shot down a fighter jet in the northwest.

The warplane came down in a massive explosion, leaving behind a plume of smoke, an AFP journalist reporting several kilometres from where the jet was downed said.

The aircraft was hit by a missile and crashed at Daret Ezza, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It came a day after fighters said they downed an army helicopter for the first time with a newly acquired ground-to-air missile.

Army warplanes also carried out five raids in 15 minutes on Maaret al-Numan, an opposition-held town on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.

Fighter jets also bombarded Daraya, southwest of Damascus, and the besieged, opposition-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs, dubbed by activists as "the capital of the revolution".