By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
A powerful bomb ripped through a bustling commercial district of Damascus on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people, shattering store fronts and bringing Syria's civil war to the heart of the capital for the second consecutive day.
Syria's prime minister escaped an assassination attempt Monday when a bomb went off near his convoy in Damascus, state media reported, the latest attack targeting a top official in President Bashar Assad's regime.
Syria's wounded interior minister cut short his treatment at a Beirut hospital Wednesday and returned home for fear of being arrested by Lebanese authorities, while Syria's chief of military police defected to the opposition, becoming one of the highest-ranking officers to switch sides.
Syria's wounded interior minister rushed home from a Beirut hospital on Wednesday for fear he would be arrested after some Lebanese called for him to be prosecuted for his role in a 1986 crackdown by Syrian troops in Lebanon.
Syrian rebels fully captured a northern town near the Turkish border on Tuesday after weeks of siege and heavy fighting.
Inspecting the site of the blast, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, who himself escaped a car bomb that targeted his convoy in December, told reporters the back-to-back attacks in the capital were in response to the "victories and achievements scored by the Syrian Arab Army on the ground against terrorism."
Bomb tears through Damascus; 14 people killed, 103 wounded →
