DAMASCUS, Syria — Thousands of people in the Syrian capital are taking part in funerals for the 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that struck Damascus.

Mourners carried coffins draped in Syrian flags into the eighth-century Omayyad Mosque in downtown Damascus on Saturday.

Many of them shouted in support of embattled President Bashar Assad.

The Syrian government has blamed the al-Qaida terrorist network for Friday's bombings, in which suicide attackers used car bombs to target the heavily guarded compounds of Syria's intelligence agencies.

They were the first suicide car bombings in the nine-month uprising against Assad.

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The opposition, however, has questioned the government's account and hinted the regime itself could have been behind the attack.

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