Mystery Lingers Over Damascus Bombing

by George Baghdadi

(IPS) DAMASCUS -- Questions continue to hover over an attack that left four people dead in the Syrian capital Damascus.

It is not clear who the targets were of the gunmen who set off a bomb in the diplomatic quarter of Damascus April 27.

Syrian ambassador to the United States Imad Mustapha told CNN: "We've been doing our best against al-Qaeda. We share the same enemy." His suggestion was clear; that Syria too faces terrorist attacks.

Some officials say the attack might induce the U.S. administration to further delay Bush's proposed imposition of sanctions under the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act.

The United States has long accused Syria of aiding terror groups and, more recently, of failing to stop Arab militants crossing over into Iraq. Syria denies the charges.

The attack might just strengthen Syria's response.

Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel who helped push the Syria legislation through Congress, suggested that Syrian authorities could have staged the attack.

"Syria seems to be once again starting fires just to get credit for putting them out," he said.

A Syrian minister immediately hit back. "The message from the Americans is clear," expatriates minister Bussaina Shaaban wrote in the Tishrin daily Sunday. "The life of an Arab is not worth the same as a Westerner and a terrorist attack against Arabs does not deserve to be denounced."

In the attack Syrian police are reported to have battled unidentified bombers for more than an hour in Mazza, a residential neighborhood that houses several Western and Middle Eastern embassies, including those of Canada, Britain, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The attackers are said to have lobbed hand grenades towards police who pursued them. A police officer was killed along with a woman caught in the crossfire. Two of the terrorists were also killed, police said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the first such in Syria in years. But Syrian officials were quick to talk of "terrorists" and to link it to terror attacks in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Morocco, and a purported bombing plot in Jordan.

The state-run al-Baath newspaper said the attack is a symptom of the terrorism gripping the entire region.

The fighting took place around an abandoned four-story building that once housed the UN disengagement observer force which monitors an agreement between Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.

There were clear signs of damage to the building, but police prevented anyone from entering.

Some diplomats expressed surprise at the speed with which Syrian authorities announced the discovery of an arms cache.

State-run television soon showed footage of a room in which rocket-propelled grenades, gas cylinders and bags full of a yellow powder were stored. A commentary said this makeshift depot was used by the group that launched the attack.

"We don't know what really happened, or who did it or why," a Western diplomat told IPS. "What interest could a terrorist group have in attacking an abandoned building when nearby embassies could have been targeted relatively easily?"

Syrian officials have named only al-Qaeda as the suspect group behind the attack. Information minister Ahmad al-Hassan suggested that the attackers were of different nationalities.

But little more is alleged about the attackers. The civilian was named as 40- year-old gym instructor Nahla Zeidan from the Flower of Damascus School. The school was renamed after her.

Last month clashes between Kurds in northeast Syria on one hand and security forces and Arab tribes on the other left 40 dead, according to Kurdish sources. Syrian officials placed the death toll at 25. But few suspect Kurds in the attack last week.