Al Qaeda Watch: Syrian Guards Protect United States Embassy in Damascus from Al Qaeda Attack

A U.S. soldier is seen behind barbed wire, next to the American flag on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday Sept. 12, 2006. Armed Islamic militants attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy using automatic rifles, hand grenades and at least one van rigged with explosives, the government said. Syrian security forces claim they killed three of the attackers and that no Americans were hurt.

AP: Syrians fight off attack on U.S. Embassy

Syrian guards foiled an attempt by suspected al-Qaida-linked militants to blow up the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, exchanging fire outside the compound’s walls with gunmen shouting “God is great” who tried to storm in with automatic weapons and hand grenades.

No Americans were hurt and the embassy was not damaged in the brazen, midmorning attack, which came amid high tension between Washington and Damascus. But the assault could highlight the Syrian regime’s weakening grip on militants, who have battled Syrian security forces repeatedly in recent years.

Sunni Muslim extremists such as al-Qaida fiercely despise President Bashar Assad’s regime because of its secular ideology and because his father, the late President Hafez Assad, led a crackdown on Muslim fundamentalists that killed thousands in the city of Hama in 1982. They also reject Assad’s rule because he belongs to the Shiite Alawite sect of Islam.

Syria helps repel the Al-Qaeda THUGS who trie to storm the United States Embassy today, yet Syria is a police state which allows Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad to be based there.

Go figure.

Syria is a state sponsor of terror and if the Syrians cannot protect the American Embassy from terrorist acts Syria’s ambassador to the United States should be sent packing and the United States should close the embassy.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on a little-known al-Qaida offshoot called Jund al-Sham, Arabic for Soldiers of Syria.

Syria’s ambassador to the U.S., Imad Moustapha, told The Associated Press it was too early to say but “it’s logically possible” Jund al-Sham was responsible.

If confirmed, it would be the boldest and most sophisticated attack yet by Jund al-Sham.

Syrian parents evacuate their children from a school opposite the U.S. embassy in Damascus September 12, 2006. Four gunmen attacked the U.S. embassy in Damascus on Tuesday, but failed to harm any American diplomats before all four were killed, a Syrian official said. Syrian state television said the attackers had tried to detonate a car bomb in front of the embassy but had failed.

Stay tuned…….

Blood is washed away on the sidewalk outside the U.S. embassy in Damascus Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006.

Al Qaeda Watch: Terrorist Attack at United States Embassy in Damascus, Syria

Technorati Tags: AlQaeda, Syria, Jundal-Sham