Syria Foils Terrorist Attack on US Embassy

The time of this incident appears to be coinciding with the 5th anniversay of 9/11. Whether it is the work of Al-Qaeda is still not clear, but in my view highly unlikely because it does not appear to have been conducted with the same scale and precision that Al-Qaeda attacks are characterisitic of.

Three armed men have been killed and one wounded after they attacked the US embassy in Damascus in what Syria has called a terrorist operation.

The men approached the embassy compound on Tuesday morning and then attempted to blow up a car outside, according to Syrian television. [link]

The AP reports that Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha made comments to CNN indicating that an Al-Qaeda offshoot group named Jund al-Sham has been responsible for previous attacks in Syria although no one has yet claimed they are directly responsible for this attack.

Secretary of State Rice thanked Syria, a country the State Dept considers a sponsor of terrorism and a part of the "Axis of Evil", for protecting the US embassy and its staff.

[technorati tags: Syria, terrorism, US]