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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria hunts for suspects in deadly car bombing |
| 2008-09-29 |
| Syria's security forces were hunting Sunday for the culprits behind a car bombing that killed 17 people in an attack analysts said could have been aimed at splitting the country's alliance with Iran or deterring it from becoming too friendly with the West. Saturday's bombing near a Shiite shrine in Damascus, one of the deadliest attacks in the country in two decades, drew worldwide condemnation, including from the United States which has repeatedly accused Syria of fueling unrest in Iraq and Lebanon. A car packed with 200 kilograms of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel-Majid called "a terrorist act." All the casualties were civilians, Abdel-Majid told state television, adding: "A counter-terrorist unit is trying to track down the perpetrators." Saturday's blast was the deadliest since a spate of attacks in the 1980s blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood left nearly 150 dead. It came at a time that Syria has launched indirect peace talks with arch-foe Israel, moved to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon and opened the door to improved relations with the West. But Syria has also witnessed the assassinations of a top Hizbullah commander and a senior general this year. The Arab League condemned the bombing as a "a criminal operation that terrorised those who felt secure, but it won't achieve its criminal goal." Ryad Kahwaji, a Dubai-based analyst, said no group could be above suspicion because of Syria's "contradictory regional position." "An ally of Iran, at the same time it is holding indirect peace talks with Israel on condition - according to Israel - that it distances itself from Tehran," Kahwaji told AFP. |
| Posted by:Fred |