DAMASCUS: Two suicide bombs struck the heavily guarded Syrian army headquarters in the heart of Damascus yesterday, killing four guards and sparking a gunbattle between troops and rebels, state media said.
A rebel officer and a rights group said the audacious attack which also left 14 people wounded was an inside job, while an Islamist rebel group said five of its fighters including a suicide bomber died in carrying out the assault.
Iran’s Press TV, meanwhile, said one of its correspondents, a Syrian national, was killed by sniper fire and its Damascus bureau chief wounded as they reported from the scene. The spectacular assault on the army’s operations command centre came as the worsening bloodshed, which left at least 217 dead on Tuesday, dominated proceedings at the UN General Assembly in New York.
“Armed terrorist groups with affiliations abroad this morning carried out a new act of terrorism by detonating a car bomb and another device on the edge of the general staff compound,” an army statement said.
“All senior commanders and other officers are safe and sound, and none of them was wounded,” the statement carried by state media said. But state television citing a military official said four troops guarding the headquarters were killed, and 14 civilians and soldiers injured.
The broadcaster showed video footage of a white van exploding on the roadside next to the building housing the headquarters, and a second blast inside the compound. It said the bombings were 10 minutes apart.
President Bashar Al Assad’s regime has systematically blamed unrest and violence on foreign-backed terrorist gangs ever since the revolt erupted in March 2011.
The rebel Free Syrian Army’s Military Council in Damascus said on its Facebook page that “the Free Syrian Army has struck the military headquarters in Damascus’s Umayyad Square.”
A rebel officer and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was an inside job, while an Islamist rebel group said its men carried out the attack. The claims were impossible to verify.
“The operation was carried out by several Free Syrian Army battalions working with an officer and his troops on the inside,” said Ahmed al-Khatib, spokesman for the FSA’s Military Council in Damascus.
Khatib confirmed the attack was staged with two car bombs, but denied they were driven by suicide attackers, which is not a tactic used by the FSA in the past. “An Islamist rebel group, Tajamo Ansar Al Islam (Gathering of Partisans of Islam) also claimed responsibility. Five of its fighters, including a suicide bomber, were killed in the attack, the group said in a statement posted online.
The group said bombs placed on the third floor of the building with the help of sympathisers within the military had been detonated.
It was the most spectacular attack on the security forces since a July 18 suicide bombing against a heavily guarded headquarters in Damascus killed four top regime officials, including defence minister General Daoud Rajha and Assad’s brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.
Iran’s English-language Press TV said its correspondent Maya Nasser was killed and its Damascus bureau chief Hussein Mortada, a Lebanese, wounded at the army compound.
Press TV’s newsroom director, Hamid Reza Emadi said that Nasser, a 33-year-old Syrian national, was killed instantly when he was shot in the neck while reporting live for the channel. “He was giving his report when the line was cut off. After a few minutes we learned there was gunfire and he was killed,” Emadi said.
“We hold Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar responsible for the murder of our correspondent in Damascus, (as) they provide weapons to the insurgents in Syria and the insurgents are using sniper fire,” he said.
Press TV, which broadcasts in English, and Al Alam, an Arabic-language network, are financed by the Iranian government, which is supporting Damascus in its struggle against the 18-month rebellion.
Opposition activists said security forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad killed more than 40 people in a small town outside Damascus yesterday, calling it a massacre. The 18-month-old uprising against Assad’s rule has descended into civil war of late and grown increasingly bloody.
Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Mursi has cancelled a meeting of four regional powers on the Syria crisis because of the absence of Turkey’s prime minister from this week’s UN General Assembly, according to presidential spokesman.
The quartet of Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia arose from an initiative by Egypt, whose new president is looking to make his mark with what he has described as a balanced foreign policy. “There was supposed to be a meeting this week, but due to the absence of the Turkish prime minister it’s now cancelled,” presidential spokesman Yasser Ali told reporters, referring to Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan. AFP
