Al Qaeda offshoot suspected in U.S. Embassy attack in Syria

[Ignacio Upton]

Al Qaeda offshoot suspected in U.S. Embassy attack in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) -- Syrian security forces killed four attackers Tuesday outside the U.S. Embassy in Damascus after a car exploded near the walls of the American compound, the Syrian Information Ministry said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but an al Qaeda offshoot group called Jund al-Sham -- or Soldiers of Lebanon -- is suspected, said Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States.

The radical fundamentalist group has been blamed for several attacks in Syria in recent years, Moustapha said.

One Syrian security guard protecting the embassy was killed in the attack, Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported. (Watch officials go through evidence from attack -- 5:43)

Syrian authorities wounded and arrested another suspected attacker, the ministry said.

No American diplomats were harmed.

SANA reported 13 others were wounded, including an embassy policeman, a security worker and 11 civilians, among them two Iraqis and a Chinese.

"The State Department confirms an attack by unknown assailants," U.S. State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said from Washington. "The event appears to be over and handled by local authorities ... on the scene."

The Syrian Information Ministry said none of the staff was wounded and the embassy incurred no damage.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/09/12/syria.embassy/index.html

[displacedtexan]

1. Why is our embassy NOT guarded by Americans in Damascus?

I've been to our embassies in London, Paris, & Rome. All guarded
by Americans.

[Ignacio Upton]

2. We pulled our ambassador out of Syria in early 2005

Over it's response to the Hariri assassination in Lebanon. I'm thinking that's probably why.

[displacedtexan]

3. So who's minding the store now?

Typists and filers?

[0007]

11. junior look alike mannequins

[allemand]

5. The embassy is guarded by U.S. Marines.

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.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091200345.html?nav=rss_email/components

[dipsydoodle]

4. Car for sale

Would suit suicide bomber. Only used once. No reasonable offer refused.

[wakeme2008]

7. I like the new Fin

[dipsydoodle]

8. That's a custom option.

:rofl:

[Mark E. Smith]

6. I hate to use the cliche' ...

... but you're doing a heck of a job, Georgie.

[Lurking Dem]

9. November cannot come too soon.

[CJCRANE]

10. Does this mean

that Syria is now an "ally in the war on terror"?

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. " Al Qaeda offshoot" - umm - that could be one the PNACer gangs, no?

.
.
.

The US has their fingers tangled in so many plots its hard to keep track of them.

The US sell WMDs to other countries, then attack them because they THINK they still have some.

The US accuse other countries of WANTING to have a nuke, when they themselves have THOUSANDS of them, and the US is the ONLY country that has ever used them on another nation -

AND A TOTALLY CIVILIAN POPULATION at that!

Yet the US attempts to convince the world that if NK has a half a dozen, "it's a danger" - and if Iran "gets one or two in the next decade - "they are a danger".

Get real

THE USA IS THE DANGER, folks.

Not this so-called axis of evil y'all are spending your tax dollars on

sheesh!

[muryan]

13. Although there were vast casualties

caused by both atomic weapons being detonated, it probably did save lives in the long run. The Japanese army was well known for never surrendering and fighting to the death. A prolonged conflict in the pacific would have cost more lives than were lost in the atomic bombings. Im not proud that it happened but i respect the logic behind it. Im more ashemed of Dresden than I am by Nagasaki and Hiroshima