thedrifter
09-12-06, 07:13 AM
Four Killed in Attack Outside U.S. Embassy in Syria
By Rhonda Roumani and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 12, 2006; 7:28 AM
DAMASCUS, Sept. 12--At least three armed assailants and a Syrian security guard were killed Tuesday outside the U.S. Embassy building in what Syrian authorities said was a foiled plot to storm the compound. No Americans were injured.
An explosion was heard about 10 a.m. on the street outside the embassy, officials said (3 a.m. EDT). Although the area was quickly cordoned off to journalists, the charred remains of a parked vehicle could be seen, along with pools of blood. At one point, a plume of smoke was visible from inside the embassy compound.
Syrian officials said one Syrian security guard was killed, and another critically injured, in the effort to stop the planned attack. They said the attackers appeared to be religious extremists, who shouted Allahu Ahkbar! (God is Great) during the confrontation.
In addition to the three slain assailants, a fourth was seriously injured, officials said.
The embassy building is surrounded by high walls and located in a diplomatic neighborhood of Damascus, close to other foreign outposts. Like U.S. government facilities elsewhere in the world, it is guarded by U.S. Marines inside the compound, and local security forces on the outside.
Witnesses said the explosions did not seem large enough to have come from a full-fledged car bomb; instead, some said, the attackers appeared to have detonated grenades or rockets before engaging in a gun battle with security forces.
Heavy automatic weapon fire could be heard for about 15 or 20 minutes at the start of the confrontation. Syrian officials later said a second vehicle, possibly a van, was rigged with explosives as part of the plot but had been disarmed.
A Chinese diplomat was slightly injured by a stray bullet during the attack, China's government news agency told the Associated Press. A sports utility vehicle with U.S. diplomatic tags had a bullet hole through its front window, the news service reported, and the glass windows of nearby guard houses also were shattered.
The U.S. flag at the embassy was flying at half-mast at the start of the incident, possibly as part of Monday's commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. But by mid-afternoon, the flag had been raised to its full height.
Although the streets around the embassy remained closed to the public, police did allow parents of students at a nearby school to slip past the barricades and pick up their youngsters. Several women were in tears as they did so.
The U.S. diplomatic compound in Damascus has been without an ambassador for the last 19 months, since the assassination in February, 2005 of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut. President Bush recalled Ambassador Margaret Scobey in an effort to show his displeasure with Syria's involvement in Lebanese politics and internal affairs.
Even before Hariri was killed by a car bomb that wiped out his motorcade, tensions had been growing between the United States and Syria over Syria's failure to clamp down on insurgents and foreign fighters using the country as a refuge and crossing the border into Iraq.
Wilgoren reported from Washington.
Ellie
By Rhonda Roumani and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 12, 2006; 7:28 AM
DAMASCUS, Sept. 12--At least three armed assailants and a Syrian security guard were killed Tuesday outside the U.S. Embassy building in what Syrian authorities said was a foiled plot to storm the compound. No Americans were injured.
An explosion was heard about 10 a.m. on the street outside the embassy, officials said (3 a.m. EDT). Although the area was quickly cordoned off to journalists, the charred remains of a parked vehicle could be seen, along with pools of blood. At one point, a plume of smoke was visible from inside the embassy compound.
Syrian officials said one Syrian security guard was killed, and another critically injured, in the effort to stop the planned attack. They said the attackers appeared to be religious extremists, who shouted Allahu Ahkbar! (God is Great) during the confrontation.
In addition to the three slain assailants, a fourth was seriously injured, officials said.
The embassy building is surrounded by high walls and located in a diplomatic neighborhood of Damascus, close to other foreign outposts. Like U.S. government facilities elsewhere in the world, it is guarded by U.S. Marines inside the compound, and local security forces on the outside.
Witnesses said the explosions did not seem large enough to have come from a full-fledged car bomb; instead, some said, the attackers appeared to have detonated grenades or rockets before engaging in a gun battle with security forces.
Heavy automatic weapon fire could be heard for about 15 or 20 minutes at the start of the confrontation. Syrian officials later said a second vehicle, possibly a van, was rigged with explosives as part of the plot but had been disarmed.
A Chinese diplomat was slightly injured by a stray bullet during the attack, China's government news agency told the Associated Press. A sports utility vehicle with U.S. diplomatic tags had a bullet hole through its front window, the news service reported, and the glass windows of nearby guard houses also were shattered.
The U.S. flag at the embassy was flying at half-mast at the start of the incident, possibly as part of Monday's commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. But by mid-afternoon, the flag had been raised to its full height.
Although the streets around the embassy remained closed to the public, police did allow parents of students at a nearby school to slip past the barricades and pick up their youngsters. Several women were in tears as they did so.
The U.S. diplomatic compound in Damascus has been without an ambassador for the last 19 months, since the assassination in February, 2005 of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut. President Bush recalled Ambassador Margaret Scobey in an effort to show his displeasure with Syria's involvement in Lebanese politics and internal affairs.
Even before Hariri was killed by a car bomb that wiped out his motorcade, tensions had been growing between the United States and Syria over Syria's failure to clamp down on insurgents and foreign fighters using the country as a refuge and crossing the border into Iraq.
Wilgoren reported from Washington.
Ellie