Explosion in Damascus Near the Airport Road

[SISCO]

Originally Posted by dodzi

Was it the Syrian government who said this or what?

In any case I'm surprised you are surprised by this. Lebanon is known for its lawless refugee camps, where terrorists from around the world gather to plan attacks, in Lebanon or abroad.

I agree about that !!! But when they say this, it's like accusing the lebanese and not some terrorist organization that works from Leb.

[dodzi]

Originally Posted by SISCO

I agree about that !!! But when they say this, it's like accusing the lebanese and not some terrorist organization that works from Leb.

Is iTELE a French or Syrian network?

Coz if its French, it is not uncommon for Western media to misinform people, or changing the content of reports...

[taifoon]

Originally Posted by dodzi

This isn't just some explosion. If you're surprised something this big is broadcasted, it is probably because the last time something of this caliber happened was more than 20 years ago...

You only managed to miss few key words:

Originally Posted by me

Here i am a little surprised the news of the explosion, given the size of its impact, were quickly broadcasted nearly the same moment it happened.

That a similar explosion happened 20 years, 30 years or 4 years ago, is irrelevant to the context of a regime that is in full control and chooses at own will an as it sees fit to either broadcast or not broadcast whatever happens inside its tightly sealed walls.

[dodzi]

Originally Posted by taifoon

You only managed to miss few key words:



That a similar explosion happened 20 years, 30 years or 4 years ago, is irrelevant to the context of a regime that is in full control and chooses at own will an as it sees fit to either broadcast or not broadcast whatever happens inside its tightly sealed walls.

Actually they arrived later, after the authorities have permitted them to approach the scene of the crime... It's not like they arrived before the authorities...

While the regime is in full control of the media, it doesn't mean it is in full control of the country. No regime could be. In any case, it is still them who agreed for the media to approach the scene...

[fidelio]

Imaginary oval discussion scene, with a cast of imaginary Marlboro pals.



Cowboy boots: "...Vlad is going haywire, arming boyscouts all over the place and there's not much we can do about him. Imagine that he promised to throw some guns in Bashar's Lap!." ... "and that Syrian big bird has the nerve to play along with a stupid smirk on his face"... "Darn i tell ya!"

Bin Bribes: "don't worry Georgey boy, i still have some kids up my sleeve for the likes of Asad. "... "Vladimir is obviously untouchable, but we can still shake the stick and bully the doctor..."

Cowboy boots: "Thanks ol' Bribes ol' pal." ...

[fidelio]

The car bomb that exploded this morning in Syria is the first successful “al-Qaida” type terrorist attack in Syria in the last 10 years.
In general, Syria has been one of the safest major Middle Eastern capitals. The US State Department has maintained a travel advisory against Syria, but that is largely for political reasons. Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Israel-Palestine, Saudi Arabia, etc. are much more dangerous than Syria and have suffered more al-Qaida attacks and dead Americans than Syria. It should be said that no American has been killed by terrorists in Syria throughout the entire history of the country. At least I don’t know of one. Perhaps a Syria Comment reader will correct me?

The fear sparked by this attack is that terrorism has returned to Syria. During the late 1970s and early 1980s Syria experienced a steady and violent period of terrorist strikes, carried out by the radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

There have been a number of political assassinations and several failed terrorist attacks in the last decade, but extremist Sunni groups have not been successful in Syria. Some of the assassinations and explosions are commonly attributed to Israel.

See al-Jazeera’s Timeline: Syria attacks. In this group we can place the most recent Mughniya assassination, the authorship of which is disputed, the “nuclear” facility bombing in Sept 2007, the September 2004 car bombing in southern Damascus that killed an official of the Palestinian Hamas movement and three passers-by.

The al-Qaida type explosions or attacks are:

April 2004:Three assailants and empty UN building in Mezzeh. Apoliceman and a woman passer-by die in the gun battle. The government blames al-Qaeda, but the attack is claimed by a group which says it wants to avenge the government crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama in 1982.
September 2006: The US embassy was attacked by three armed men, which was botched. All three were killed and a member of the Syrian security forces was killed and 14 people wounded in a failed attempt to set off a car bomb.
There have also been a number of round-ups and gun battles between security forces and “al-Qaida” types, but not successful extremist opperations that have done much damage.
According to the official SANA news agency, the blast occurred on the Mahlaq road in southern Damascus in an area crowded with civilian passers-by. The site was near the Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood, which is popular with Shiite pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq. No group has yet taken responsibility for the bombing. It may have been an Iraqi Sunni group targetting Shiites or a home-grown Syrian group. We don’t know.

More Here.

Note: Joshua Landis teaches modern Middle Eastern history and politics and writes on Syria and its surrounding countries.
He writes “Syria Comment,” a daily newsletter on Syrian politics that attracts some 3,000 readers a day. It is widely read by officials in Washington, Europe and Syria. Dr. Landis regularly travels to Washington DC to consult with the State Department and other government agencies.

[taifoon]

Originally Posted by dodzi

Actually they arrived later, after the authorities have permitted them to approach the scene of the crime...It's not like they arrived before the authoritie

Seriously? Because those french journalists are very mbanda2in, and no one knows what they're capable of..

While the regime is in full control of the media, it doesn't mean it is in full control of the country. No regime could be. In any case, it is still them who agreed for the media to approach the scene...

Which is the focus of my initial reply. By being in full control of the media, you are being in control of reality (or the one usually relayed forward to your own people as well the outside world).

[Lordoflebanon]

:D

[Icebolt]

So much for the "Updates Only" remark.

[ecce homo]

Damascus car bomb kills 17

Mitchell Prothero in Beirut and Peter Beaumont The Observer, Sunday September 28 2008

A powerful car bomb ripped through a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus yesterday, killing 17 people and injuring 17 more. The bloodiest attack in Syria in two decades threatened further to destabilise a region already tense following the deployment of 10,000 Syrian troops to the Lebanese border last week ahead of what may be a cross-border incursion.

The bombing comes as senior Lebanese military sources told The Observer that jihadis - some based in the Lebanese city of Tripoli - had launched a series of attacks against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

According to Syrian television and news agencies, the car, packed with about 200kg of explosives, was detonated at 8.45am close to the Shia Saydah Zeinab shrine, which is visited by pilgrims from Iran and Iraq. One witness reported Iranian pilgrims were among the casualties.

Syrian officials yesterday suggested they believed the attack was the responsibility of Islamist militants. Unusually for Syria, whose media is closely policed, details of the attack were reported immediately, with rolling updates on the casualties and investigation. The bombing - the third major attack this year - was similar to terrorist attacks launched by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Eighties before Assad's father, Hafez, launched a bloody crackdown.

The blast, which was swiftly condemned by the US, Russia and France, took place as Syria appeared to be emerging from international isolation following its peace talks with Israel and co-operation on Lebanon.

'This is definitely a terrorism attack that occurred in a crowded area,' Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majeed told state television. 'This is a cowardly attack.'

'Smoke filled nearby buildings ... I rushed to the street and found a burning car, fire and smoke,' a witness told state television. Another said: 'I was sleeping ... and then the doors came loose and I felt like I was in the street. Glass windows were destroyed and the ceiling's iron infrastructure was visible. We thought it was an earthquake.'

The attack was the first explosion in Damascus since the car bomb assassination of Imad Moughniyah, military commander of the Lebanese Islamist group Hizbollah, in February. Hizbollah blames Israel for that attack, although Israel denies it. Last month, a senior security commander who was the International Atomic Energy Agency's main Syrian contact, was shot dead at a beach resort near the port of Tartous in mysterious circumstances.

The bomb attack comes days after Syria dispatched troops to the Lebanese border in an operation initially described as an anti-smuggling effort, but actually intended, according to senior Lebanese military and intelligence officials, to strike against Sunni militants infiltrating Syria and launching attacks against the regime. Lebanese officials spoke of at least four such attacks in the past two weeks, in which at least one Syrian soldier was killed.

Although Syria is a majority Sunni Muslim state, the Allawite sect of Shiite Islam, which is considered heretical by fundamentalist Sunnis, controls its political class. Syria had been accused of turning a blind eye to the transit of fighters to Iraq across its border, a policy that had apparently changed in the past few weeks.

Several Lebanese political figures expressed fears that yesterday's attack, as well as the unpublicised attacks on Syrian positions by suspected Lebanese militants, could give Damascus an excuse to send its military into northern Lebanon.

'These attacks and troop movements are very serious,' said one senior Lebanese military commander after the arrival of the Syrian troops on the border but before Saturday's attack. 'The Syrians have long feared another rise in the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave them so many problems in northern Syria in the Eighties. They told us that they're going to stop radicals from Tripoli from infiltrating across the border into Hama and Homs, where they could receive significant support from the Sunni populations there.'

Both Hama and Homs were the scenes of fierce fighting in the early Eighties as the Brotherhood, which espouses Islamic governance, attempted to seize local power from the Syrian Baath Party regime.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly invoked the possibility of a Syrian intervention into northern Lebanon to prevent the area from being destabilised by Islamic radicals.

Although Lebanon's Sunni population is famously moderate and liberal by regional standards, Tripoli is a known to have a significant population of fundamentalists. The city sent dozens of fighters to assist al-Qaeda in Iraq fight the American and British presence.