BEIRUT: Hezbollah accused the United States Friday of orchestrating the suicide bombings that ripped through the Syrian capital earlier in the day killing over 40 people and wounding scores more.

“These bombings which resulted in the deaths and wounding of tens of people, mostly women and children, is the specialty of the United States, the mother of all terrorism,” Hezbollah’s press office said.

“[The U.S.] specializes in targeting the innocent, killing and terrorizing them to force them to comply to American politics to achieve the Zionist interest which Americans place above all else,” the statement added.

Hezbollah, Syria’s staunchest ally in Lebanon, maintains that a foreign conspiracy led by the United States and Israel aims to target the Syrian leadership for its alliance with Iran and its support for resistance groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

In its statement Friday, Hezbollah also said the attacks were the beginning of a series of reprisals following what the party described as America’s defeat in Iraq.

“This horrible terrorist crime, which was committed by the enemies of humanity, comes a day following coordinated blasts in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, which suggests that those affected by the major defeat of the United States in Iraq, has begun a cowardly, bloody operation of reprisal,” the statement said.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad said over 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded as a result of the attacks that struck just before midday Friday.

State TV said the explosions took place in the upscale Kfar Sousa district and targeted the building housing state security and a nearby intelligence building in the neighborhood.