Bombers hit Damascus but no casualties

Bombers struck the heart of Damascus early Wednesday sparking twin explosions near the headquarters of the armed forces general staff, state media said. "The terrorist explosions were caused by two bombs but the only damage was to property," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi told state television. "All military commanders and army spokespeople are fine," he added. The early morning explosions sparked a fire in the Syrian capital's closely guarded Umayyad Square administrative district, the television said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the twin blasts struck just 15 minutes apart only a few hundred yards (metres) from the staff headquarters. "Huge columns of smoke were seen billowing over the area and windows were shattered hundreds of metres (yards) away," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP, citing activists on the ground. The Britain-based watchdog said automatic weapons fire was heard after the blasts as clashes erupted with security forces.