Syria holds Islamists responsible for Damascus explosions
Syria, Politics, 4/30/2004

Syria said that what it had described as extremists were behind the recent attacks which took place to the west of the capital Damascus on Tuesday evening.

The Syrian minister of information Ahmad al-Hassan did not rule out that al-Qaida organization to be involved in these incidents. He said that "members of the group belong to various nationalities but they are overwhelmed by extremism." Al-Hassan said in a press conference that, according to events taking place in the region of developments and " terrorist" works, which came after the occupation of Iraq and the criminal acts committed by Sharon in the Palestinian territories, accusation fingers do not exclude al-Qaida from these acts.

He said that attackers detonated a car stationed near the Canadian embassy before the time scheduled for the explosion after they were surprisingly attacked by the security forces and then fled to a previous building for the UN where clashes took place.

On Tuesday evening Syria announced that members of the security forces exchanged fire with four members after they had detonated a booby trapped car in front of uninhabited building. Syria also said that the incident resulted in killing two of the attackers and wounding and holding the other two, while one police man was killed and one passing by woman.

For its part, Washington doubted the Syrian story about the events. A spokesman for the US Department Of State said that the reports of the American diplomats on the incident do not comply with the story issued by official and information sources in Syria.

The spokesman for the department Adam Early said that what "we know is a fire exchange took place between police members in Syria and armed men who were not identified in a residential quarters in Damascus. We do think that three gunmen were killed, while the fourth was arrested. Early stressed that the American authorities could not specify the reason behind the explosions precisely nor the time when it took place.

Previous Stories:
  al-Jazeera: Al-Assad: Assassination of Palestinian leaders in Syria, will be an aggression, Iraqi resistance is legitimate   (4/29/2004)
  Tourism Minister: Damascus explosion was an isolated incident   (4/29/2004)
  Normal life returned to Mezze district   (4/29/2004)

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