Live: Blast Strikes at Assad's Inner Circle

By VOA News

15:25 UTC: Arab League foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Doha, Qatar, Sunday to discuss the latest developments in Syria

15:20 UTC: Official statement from the Syrian government on the bombing.

15:10 UTC: "It's obvious that what is happening in Syria represents a real escalation in the fighting and that all of the concerns that we've expressed about the need for Assad to step down, the need for a peaceful transition, the need to achieve a peaceful solution to that situation. That by ignoring those appeals by the international community, that the violence there has only gotten worse and the loss of life is only increased. This tells us that this is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control."

--Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, commenting on the bombing that killed at least two senior Syrian officials

Just walked around national security building and saw no sign of explosions, no broken window, no heavy security presence #Damascus #Syria

— Lina Sinjab (@BBCLinaSinjab) July 18, 2012

14:34 UTC: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan , at a news conference in Moscow with Russian president, says the will of the Syrian people should determine what happens in Syria. Turkey wants “massacre” in Syria to come to an end.

14:27 UTC: Al Jazeera reports gunfire in some neighborhoods around capital. Reports of rebels armed with knives roaming through some neighborhoods. Activists say military has deployed tanks around presidential palace.

14:26 UTC: Live video purportedly streamed from a rooftop in the Maidan neighborhood in Damascus, Syria.