Syria blames Israel for deadly suicide bombings

From Israel HaYom:

Israel is behind a set of twin car bombings in Damascus on Saturday, Syrian state-run television said Sunday. The blasts killed at least 27 people, Army Radio reported.

“Israel committed these crimes by use of its agents,” said Sheik Abdul-Kader al-Shehabi from Damascus on Sunday, providing no motive, but adding that Israel was “created by the devil as a product of his sinful thoughts.”

So it must not have been the will of Allah, but of his arch-nemesis that he cannot control. Just trying to keep track of the Islamic theology of Zionism.

Sharing the screen with Shehabi was the Anglican Bishop of Aleppo, Ibrahim Nassir, who shared the sentiment. Army Radio quoted Nassir as saying, “This criminal act gives the Israeli entity a real opportunity to extend its control over the region.”

The two near-simultaneous bombings involved explosives-laden vehicles detonated near heavily guarded intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital.

The regime blamed the opposition, which denied having a role or the capabilities to carry out such a sophisticated attack. And after other similar attacks, U.S. officials suggested that al-Qaida militants may be joining the fray.

The early morning explosions struck the heavily fortified air force intelligence building and the criminal security department, several miles apart in Damascus, around the same time, the Interior Ministry said. Much of the facade of the intelligence building appeared to have been ripped away.

State-run news agency SANA said a third blast went off near a military bus at the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus, killing the two suicide bombers.

That third blast killed a number of Palestinians - and the vehicle that exploded belonged to the "Palestine Liberation Army" which is a division of Syria's armed forces.

A Damascus source noted security forces had threatened the camp just days earlier due to reported dissent.

A security official threatened to raid the camp due to Fatah's alleged support of demonstrations against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, sources in the camp told Ma'an this week.

“Yarmouk is not more precious than (Homs neighborhood) Baba Amro, and it will be raided if the demonstrations which Fatah movement organizes” continue, a security agent was quoted as saying.

There was another car bomb in Aleppo today.