Counterterrorist officers in Syria yesterday hunted for those responsible for a car bomb attack that killed 17 people in Damascus, one of the deadliest attacks in the country in more than a decade.
The bombing on Saturday near a Shiite shrine in the Syrian capital, which left 14 people wounded, drew condemnation from around the world, including from the US, which has repeatedly accused Syria of fueling unrest in Iraq.
The car packed with 200kg of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majid described as “a terrorist act.”
PHOTO: AP
All the casualties were civilians, he told state television.
“A counterterrorist unit is trying to track down the perpetrators,” the general said.
The rare attack in a country known for its iron-fisted security struck the teeming neighborhood of Sayeda Zeinab, the state-run SANA news agency said.
The district draws tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon each year to pray at the tomb of Zeinab, daughter of Shiite martyr Ali and granddaughter of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
“It felt like an earthquake. The force of the explosion threw me out of bed,” one man who lives near the scene told state television.
“Thank God this was Saturday. The catastrophe would have been bigger if the attack had taken place on Sunday when schools were open,” he said.
Another man said the blast was heard some 10km away.
The attack prompted the US State Department to announce it was temporarily closing its consular section in Damascus for all but emergency services for US citizens. The Damascus Community School was also shut.
The facilities will be closed “in light of heightened security,” but will reopen on Oct. 5 following the Id al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, spokesman Rob McInturff said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the bombing as “concerning.”
“This attack is particularly abhorrent as it comes during the holy month of Ramadan. We extend our deepest sympathies to the victims and their families,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
Gordon Duguid, another State Department spokesman, said there was no evidence any US citizens were killed or injured in the incident, or of specific threats against the US community or embassy in Damascus.
Neighboring Lebanon, which has been riven by tensions between pro and anti-Damascus factions, also condemned the bombing, as did the UN Security Council, Arab and European states, and Syrian allies Iran and Russia.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including