ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
STORY: A suicide car bomb killed at least 15 people and wounded 53 in the main business district of Damascus on Monday in what the Syrian prime minister said was a response to army gains against rebels around the capital.
The bomb near a school in the Sabaa Bahrat district, which also houses the Central Bank and Finance Ministry, set cars ablaze and damaged buildings.
The fire brigade was dousing flames from cars crushed by the blast. Other vehicles were still on fire, lined up in what appeared to be a car park.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but each side blamed the other.
Car bombs and attacks on civilians are commonplace in the Syrian conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 70,000 people, without so far producing a winner.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said an advance team of experts had gone to Cyprus and was awaiting permission from the Syrian gover
