Syria ( Syria Says 39 Dead in Attack on Assad Supporters )

BEIRUT – An attack on an election rally for President Bashar al-Assad left 39 people dead and 205 injured, Syrian authorities said Friday.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier that at least 21 people died and 30 others were wounded in Thursday night’s mortar attack by an Islamist rebel group.

Describing the assault in the southern city of Daraa as a “terrorist attack,” Syrian state television aired images of the dead and wounded lying on the ground in pools of blood.

Assad is widely expected to win a third seven-year term in office in the June 3 contest against Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar, a lawmaker and member of the legal opposition, and Hassan bin Abdullah al-Nouri, a former minister of administrative and parliamentary affairs.

The strike in Daraa was the first mortar attack by the insurgents on an event related to the election campaign, which kicked off on May 11.

Assad has made frequent public appearances in recent weeks and focused his campaign on national unity in Syria, where a three-year civil war has left more than 160,000 dead.

The mortar attack came just hours after government forces broke a 13-month rebel siege of the main prison in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, ending the insurgents’ attempt to free thousands of inmates housed there.