Region | Syria
Terrorist attack bruises Syria's image as haven of security
The deadly terrorist attack in Damascus on Saturday which killed 17 people was not the first and would most probably not be the last of such heinous crimes.
- By Duraid Al Baik, Associate Editor
- Published: 23:56 September 28, 2008
- A woman reads the news on Sunday, a day after a car bomb that blew up near a complex housing Syrian security offices in Damascus, killing 17 people and wounding more than a dozen in the deadliest attack in the tightly controlled country in decades. Photos in the background are of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nassrallah.
- Image Credit: AP
Dubai: The deadly terrorist attack in Damascus on Saturday which killed 17 people was not the first and would most probably not be the last of such heinous crimes.
However, its significance lies in the increasing occurrences of security breaches in an Arab capital that has managed to establish an image of being the most secure in the Middle East, thanks to the iron-fisted measures enforced in the country.
The blame could vary from Israel to Al Qaida, including elements of the Syrian opposition and hardline groups in neighbouring Lebanon.
Syria, which has been accused by both US officials and the pro-US political stream in Lebanon of masterminding and facilitating a number of deadly attacks in Iraq and Lebanon in the past few years, has itself become a victim of a number of assassinations and terrorist attacks in the past few months.
Syrian officials, who categorically deny any link with incidents in Lebanon and Iraq, has failed to identify the culprits in its own backyard.
Syrian and Arab analysts and TV commentators, who have very little information about the blast, blamed the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad immediately after the incident took place, although Syrian security officials refrained from blaming any country or agency.
Suspicion
Dr Emad Fawazi Al Shueibi, head of the Data and Strategic Studies Centre, told Gulf News the Mossad's imprint is very clear in the attack, which is aimed at pressuring Syria to stop supporting the Palestinian struggle. But this will change nothing in Syria's steadfastness towards Arab issues.
"The attack is meant to destabilise security in Damascus and weaken Syria's stand while negotiating peace with Israel," he said.
Another commentator said no one could understand Saturday's blast in Damascus unless Syrian security services revealed the outcome of its investigations in three major assassinations in the past year.
"Three major assassinations occurred in Syria in the past year, which need to be explained before Syria can identify the persons responsible for planning to jeopardise security in the country," a security expert told Gulf News.
On September 28 last year, a Muslim scholar, Mohammad Kul Agassi (Abu Al Qa'Qa), was shot dead while he was leaving his mosque in the northern city of Aleppo.
Agassi, who was widely known for his strong links with government officials, had been accused by the US of recruiting and sending young fighters to neighbouring Iraq in the aftermath of the US occupation in 2003.
The murderer and his aides who were trying to flee in a car were arrested, but no information about the interrogation was publicly available.
The second incident that shocked Syrians was the assassination of Emad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah leader who was wanted by both the US and Interpol for his suspected role in a number of plane hijackings and the killing of a US citizen in the mid-990s.
The man, who managed to escape arrest by living under false identities for almost two decades, was caught by his assassins on one of the most secure areas in Damascus, blowing up his car when he started it.
On August 1, the third security breach took place in the coastal city of Tartous when a top military aide of President Bashar Al Assad, Brigadier Mohammad Sulaiman, was shot dead at midnight in his chalet beside the sea. It was unknown how the assassins managed to reach Sul-aiman.
Under wraps
There was little mention about Sulaiman until last week when Mohammad Al Baradei, Secretary General of the IAEA, said in Geneva that the Syrian officer, who was in contact with the agency over accusations of Syria building up an illegal nuclear programme, was assassinated.
The four security breaches are interlinked and Syria needs to solve them before its security image sinks in the chaos that prevails in the region.
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