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09-12-2006, 11:20 AM
Syrian Forces Repel Attack on U.S. Embassy
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: September 12, 2006
Four attackers armed with grenades and machine guns tried to storm the American embassy in Damascus today, but security forces repelled the assault, killing three of the gunmen and injuring the fourth, Syria’s official Arabic news agency said.
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One member of Syria’s antiterrorism force was killed in the battle, and three other members of the security forces were injured, the agency said.
In addition, at least 10 civilians were injured, including 7 telephone company employees working in the area; 2 Iraqis; and a Chinese man who was standing on a roof, the agency reported. Officials in Beijing told The Associated Press that the injured man was a Chinese diplomat.
There were no immediate reports of injuries to anyone inside the American embassy compound, which is located in the diplomatic neighborhood of Damascus and is surrounded by high walls. The embassy said all its personnel were safe after the attack, which took place at 10 a.m.
It advised Americans in Syria to keep a low profile, and it dismissed students at the Damascus Community School, which is affiliated with the embassy.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this morning in Nova Scotia that it was too early to say who might have been behind the failed attack, Reuters reported.
“I do think that the Syrians reacted to this attack in a way that helped to secure our people, and we very much appreciate that,” Ms. Rice was quoted as saying.
Unfortunately, she said, it remains possible for people to attack diplomatic facilities despite “an extraordinary effort” to secure them, Reuters reported. Television footage from the scene showed the remains of a burned-out car.
The Syrian Interior Minister, Bassam Abdel-Majeed, said that a “terrorist operation” aimed at the embassy had failed, and that preliminary investigations indicated that the attackers used two stolen cars, according to the Syrian news agency. He said that the attackers gained access to the vicinity of the embassy by way of a busy public street.
It appeared that one of the cars, primed with explosives, was parked at the embassy gate with the aim of detonating it and blowing the gate open, according to the agency.
“I saw two men in plain clothes and armed with grenades and automatic weapons,” a Syrian political commentator who was in the area, Ayman Abdel-Nour, told Reuters. “They ran toward the compound shouting religious slogans while firing their automatic rifles.”
The motive of the attack was not immediately clear. But public sentiment in Damascus has been anti-American lately, because of the turmoil in Iraq and because of tensions during the recent war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, when the Bush administration called for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to order Hezbollah to halt its attacks on Israel.
The State Department’s latest “Country Reports on Terrorism,” issued in April, says that Syria provides political and material support to Hezbollah and to some Palestinian terrorist organizations, and that Damascus, the Syrian capital, is a haven for leaders of these groups.
The American ambassador to Syria was withdrawn after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in February 2005. A United Nations investigation into the killing found a strong likelihood of official Syrian involvement. A charge d’affaires, a lower-ranking official, now heads the embassy in the absence of an ambassador.
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: September 12, 2006
Four attackers armed with grenades and machine guns tried to storm the American embassy in Damascus today, but security forces repelled the assault, killing three of the gunmen and injuring the fourth, Syria’s official Arabic news agency said.
.
One member of Syria’s antiterrorism force was killed in the battle, and three other members of the security forces were injured, the agency said.
In addition, at least 10 civilians were injured, including 7 telephone company employees working in the area; 2 Iraqis; and a Chinese man who was standing on a roof, the agency reported. Officials in Beijing told The Associated Press that the injured man was a Chinese diplomat.
There were no immediate reports of injuries to anyone inside the American embassy compound, which is located in the diplomatic neighborhood of Damascus and is surrounded by high walls. The embassy said all its personnel were safe after the attack, which took place at 10 a.m.
It advised Americans in Syria to keep a low profile, and it dismissed students at the Damascus Community School, which is affiliated with the embassy.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this morning in Nova Scotia that it was too early to say who might have been behind the failed attack, Reuters reported.
“I do think that the Syrians reacted to this attack in a way that helped to secure our people, and we very much appreciate that,” Ms. Rice was quoted as saying.
Unfortunately, she said, it remains possible for people to attack diplomatic facilities despite “an extraordinary effort” to secure them, Reuters reported. Television footage from the scene showed the remains of a burned-out car.
The Syrian Interior Minister, Bassam Abdel-Majeed, said that a “terrorist operation” aimed at the embassy had failed, and that preliminary investigations indicated that the attackers used two stolen cars, according to the Syrian news agency. He said that the attackers gained access to the vicinity of the embassy by way of a busy public street.
It appeared that one of the cars, primed with explosives, was parked at the embassy gate with the aim of detonating it and blowing the gate open, according to the agency.
“I saw two men in plain clothes and armed with grenades and automatic weapons,” a Syrian political commentator who was in the area, Ayman Abdel-Nour, told Reuters. “They ran toward the compound shouting religious slogans while firing their automatic rifles.”
The motive of the attack was not immediately clear. But public sentiment in Damascus has been anti-American lately, because of the turmoil in Iraq and because of tensions during the recent war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, when the Bush administration called for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to order Hezbollah to halt its attacks on Israel.
The State Department’s latest “Country Reports on Terrorism,” issued in April, says that Syria provides political and material support to Hezbollah and to some Palestinian terrorist organizations, and that Damascus, the Syrian capital, is a haven for leaders of these groups.
The American ambassador to Syria was withdrawn after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in February 2005. A United Nations investigation into the killing found a strong likelihood of official Syrian involvement. A charge d’affaires, a lower-ranking official, now heads the embassy in the absence of an ambassador.