Car bomb reportedly kills 17 in Syrian capital

[Contrary1]

Source: MSNBC

"DAMASCUS, Syria - A car bomb exploded in the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday, killing 17 civilians and wounding 14, Syrian state television reported.

The car, packed with 440 pounds of explosives, exploded on the southern Mahlak Street and anti-terror units were investigating, state TV reported.

The TV report says the early Saturday explosion occurred on the intersection leading to Saydah Zeinab, a holy shrine for Shiite Muslims that is frequently visited by Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims. The area is near the highway to Damascus airport.

TV reports said the casualties were civilian passersby.

Al-Jazeera TV reported the car bomb exploded near a Syrian intelligence post..."


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26910506/

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WWSD? What would Sarah do?

[Kool Kitty]

1. Bomb Iran and

then bomb Russia, just in case.

[xchrom]

2. recommend -- just like the arrests in germany -- bushco is keeping NO ONE safer. nt

[ohio2007]

3. Who will take credit ?

what "New" never-before-heard-from-group of the usual suspects will post their great deeds on their websites ?

:sarcasm:

How long can they sit on this LBN story targeting a shia holy area visited by Iraqi and Iranian pigrims?
Or was the intended target the Syrian "intelligence" post ?

[Parmenion]

4. Conspiracy Theories

The Intelligence HQ by this bomb was one which kept tabs on Palestinians in Syria. One theory I read in the press is that Al Qaeda is trying to pressure Syria against conducting operations against them so they targeted this posting.

Another theory is that it was a targeted assassination and either the target got away or the person dead is still not being disclosed. I really doubt it was a targeted assassination since those usually kill the target and his entourage. The people doing those in Lebanon and Syria have a lot of practice and basically never get it wrong.

If it turns out that some Sunni terrorist group based in Lebanon did this, then maybe the 10,000 Syrian troops on the northern Lebanon-Syria border will move into Lebanon for some "anti-terror" operations.

[ohio2007]

5. "It was a message to the Syrian authorities" ( Iraqi AQ suicide bomber )

“It was a message to the Syrian authorities, who were exerting pressuring on the al-Qaeda network in Syria, especially following increased Syrian openness toward the West, particularly with France, the indirect Israeli-Syrian negotiations and the Syrian decision to establish an embassy in Iraq,” said the sources.
They said that the message that al-Qaeda wanted to send to the Syrian regime was that increased Syrian pressure would lead to confrontation.The sources said that Syrian security forces had carried out a series of arrests and taken more than 35 people, mostly Syrians and other Arab nationals, into custody.


http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=60613

[BunkerHill24]

6. terrorism effects and still kills more muslims throughout the world...n/t

[EFerrari]

7. More of the Bush legacy.

:(

[ohio2007]

8. Syria's wall of security breached ( secular Syria going the way of secular Pakistan ? )

Damascus: In a rare but deadly attack, a car bomb exploded on Saturday, near a Shiite shrine in southern Damascus, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others, state media said.

Saturday's blast occurred during the morning rush-hour in the teeming neighbourhood of Sayeda Zeinab, the state-run Sana news agency said.The district is popular among Shiite pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq who pray at the tomb of Zeinab. "This is a cowardly terrorist attack," Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdul Majid told Gulf News.The blast, which contained 200kg of explosives, killed 17 civilians.

Syria, usually known for its iron-fisted security, has witnessed some recent cracks in its apparatus, especially after the car bomb assassination of Emad Moughniya, military commander of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, in February.

snip
"We haven't seen anything like this since the days of the Muslim Brotherhood," he added, in reference to militant attacks by the radical group in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Another observer, who declined to give his name, had a different theory.

"This is either Israel, or a certain Arab country that has had nothing but scorn for Syria since 2005."
I don't want to mention names; everybody knows who I am taking about," he said.

?

snip

Implications

The attack is the latest blow to Syrian security as it follows the assassination of the military commander of Lebanon's Hezbollah in Damascus and a senior military aide to President Bashar Al Assad in northern Syria earlier this year. It comes also a year after Israeli warplanes destroyed what was a suspected nuclear facility deep in Syrian territories.
The Syrian authorities have for long boasted that Syria was a haven of stability in a troubled area, with volatile Iraq, Lebanon and Israel on its borders. A rise in attacks is sure to change all that and make officials nervous over long-term stability in the country.

snip

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Syria/10248141.html

Now what Arab country has been in a pissing match with Syria starting in 2005 ?
Round up the usual suspects,shake them down and brush it all under the rug with an iron fist...while you can

Iraq-like green zones being set up Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Authorities are seriously considering setting up Iraq and Kabul-like green zones in the federal and provincial capitals to prevent terrorist attacks, The News has learnt.

In another move to block money flowing to terrorist groups and organisations, the government is thinking of abolishing all exemptions allowed to people for keeping unexplained money, either for getting it taxed or otherwise.

An Interior Ministry source told The News that sensitive parts of the federal and provincial capitals would be turned into green zones in the weeks, if not in days to come. He added that offices would soon be listed for relocating to such green zones, if they were deemed sensitive and were operating outside the declared safe territory, in at least five major towns of the country.

That would mean the Iraq and Kabul-like green zones where entry would be restricted and scanning would be conducted on all the inlets and even at the gates of the sensitive-declared buildings.

snip
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=17543

You reap what you ignored and allowed to fester and grow.
jmo

[Parmenion]

9. Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is Syria's biggest antagonist since 2005. Rafiq Hariri was a Saudi and his assassination by the Syrians is coming back around to the Syrians. About a year and a half ago Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt went to the US and gave a speech to a think tank (I forget which one, maybe AEI, maybe WINEP) calling on the US to send car bombs into Syria.