Two Suicide Car Bombs Hit Damascus

Violence escalating in the last week

BEIRUT (AP) — Two car bombs exploded in southern Syria and a rocket slammed into a building in the north in a spike in civil war violence Friday that Syrian state media blamed on rebel fighters trying to topple President Bashar Assad.

The rocket attack in the northern city of Aleppo and the suicide car bombings in Daraa, south of Damascus, occurred during a particularly bloody week nearly two years after an uprising began against Assad's regime. On Thursday, opposition activists said pro-government militia swept through a town in central Syria, torching houses and killing more than 100 people.