Damascus accuses Ankara, Riyadh of expanding Syrian conflict

Syria's Foreign Ministry said the deadly explosions rocking Syria's province of Homs Sunday revealed Turkish and Saudi roles in prolonging the Syrian crisis, according to state news agency SANA.

"The bombings are in reaction to Turkey's and Saudi's responses to their exposed role in advancing the Syrian conflict as well as an attempt to hinder the efforts towards finding a political solution," said the Foreign Ministry in condemnation letters sent to the UN.

About 46 people were killed and tens of others were wounded in twin explosions from booby-trapped cars in Homs earlier in the day.

The explosion rocked Street 60 in the pro-government district of al-Zahra', which is populated by the Alwaite minority to whom the ruling elite in Syria belong, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, Syria's state-run TV aired footage from the explosion site, showing scenes of substantial destruction and damage.

Loyal neighborhoods to the government along with other districts of Homs have suffered from frequent suicide bombings, as well as rocket and mortar fire shelling from rebels entrenched in Homs's countryside, Syria's third largest city.

Last month, over 30 people were killed in similar bombings in al-Zahra'.

The ministry urged in its letters Sunday the UN Security Council to "immediately condemn the terrorist crimes through the adoption of strict deterrent measures against countries supporting terrorism."

Syria has long accused both Saudi Arabia and Turkey of supporting the ultra-radical groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian rhetoric has recently risen with both Turkey and Saudi Arabia mulling whether to send ground troops into Syria, a move Damascus interprets as supportive of the rebels, who were repetitively defeated by Syria's army in key areas such as Latakia and Aleppo near Turkey.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that his country's war on terror represents a wider war waged by Western powers, whom, he accused, use their regional "tools in an attempt to restructure a new regional map and subsequently that of the world's." Endit