UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he believed al-Qaeda committed a major bomb attack in Damascus that left dozens dead.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he believed al-Qaeda committed a major bomb attack in Damascus that left dozens dead.

Huge blast rocked Damascus on May 10

"Very alarmingly and surprisingly, a few days ago, there was a huge serious massive terrorist attack. I believe that there must be Al-Qaeda behind it. This has created again very serious problems," Ban said at a youth event at the UN headquarters.

Earlier on May 10, huge blasts rocked Damascus, killing at least 55 people and wounding nearly 400 others.

He added that the situation in Syria was “intolerable”, saying that thousands of people have been killed during the last 15 months.
 Ban also highlighted two bomb attacks against convoys of UN ceasefire monitors in Syria.

The UN secretary-general said that apart from the deployment of the monitors, no part of the six-point Annan plan has been implemented.
"We are trying our best efforts to protect the civilian population," Ban said.

The deployment of the monitors has had a "dampening effect" and reduced the violence, "but not enough, not all the violence has stopped. So we will continue, as much as we can, to protect the civilian population," he added.