U.S. Embassy in Syria Attacked but Failed
From the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA):
Damascus, Sep. 12 (SANA),
Syrian Anti-Terror Forces Thwart Terrorist Operation that Targeted the American Embassy in Damascus
Syrian anti-terror forces on Tuesday morning thwarted a terrorist operation by a terrorist Takfiri group of four gunmen who tried to storm the American embassy in Damascus using hand grenades and machines guns.
The guards assigned to protect the American embassy clashed with the terrorists, killing three of them and wounding the fourth.
The terrorists used in their terrorist operation a car they were in and another booby-trapped car that parked in front of the embassy door to detonate it. Competent experts from anti-terror forces dismantled the explosive charge and the timing devices inside the car.
Investigations are still underway into this terrorist incident.
Read the rest here, but there's more:
Damascus, Sep. 12 (SANA),
Interior Minister: The Terrorist Operation Failed to Achieve its Aims
Syrian Minister of Interior General Bassam Abdul Majid stressed that the terrorist operation that targeted the American embassy in Damascus Tuesday morning has failed to achieve any of the aims or premeditated dimensions plotted by the criminal sides that stood behind it.
The Minister, in statements at the scene of the terrorist incident, praised the role of anti-terror forces in thwarting this terrorist operation and their alertness to protect the nation and citizens.
He said that the preliminary investigations revealed that the two cars used in this incidents were stolen, adding that investigations area underway to divulge those who are behind this terrorist operation.
The Interior Minister indicated that the scene of the terrorist operation is a public street that any car can use and stop for moments, a thing exploited by the terrorist group.
A Syrian guard assigned to protect the American Embassy was killed, and another wounded in the clash:
Damascus, Sep. 12 (SANA),
One of Anti-Terror Forces was Martyred, Others Wounded in the Terrorist Operation That Targeted US Embassy in Damascus
Following to preliminary information on the terrorist operation that targeted the American embassy in Damascus Tuesday morning, one Syrian security guard assigned for the protection of the American embassy in Damascus was martyred in the clash between anti-terror forces and the terrorist Takfiri group, another was wounded along with a policeman of the embassy guards and a security employee in the embassy.
Another 11 citizens were also injured in this terrorist operation, seven of them were workers of a technical workshop of the Syrian Telecommunication Establishment who were on a repair mission in the area, a man and a woman of Iraqi nationalities in addition to a Chinese citizen who was on the roof of his house in the area.
The wounded were taken to public hospitals for treatment.
Via CNN World:
DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) — Syrian security forces killed four attackers Tuesday outside the U.S. Embassy in Damascus after a car exploded near the walls of the American compound, the Syrian Information Ministry said.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but an al Qaeda offshoot group called Jund al-Sham — or Soldiers of Lebanon — is suspected, said Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States.
The radical fundamentalist group has been blamed for several attacks in Syria in recent years, Moustapha said.
One Syrian security guard protecting the embassy was killed in the attack, Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported.
Syrian authorities wounded and arrested another suspected attacker, the ministry said. No American diplomats were harmed.
SANA reported 13 others were wounded, including an embassy policeman, a security worker and 11 civilians, among them two Iraqis and a Chinese.
"The State Department confirms an attack by unknown assailants," U.S. State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said from Washington. "The event appears to be over and handled by local authorities … on the scene."
The Syrian Information Ministry said none of the staff was wounded and the embassy incurred no damage.
Video footage from the scene showed the burned-out wreckage of a car and blood-soaked streets near the embassy, which in a residential area of the Syrian capital.
The armed attackers apparently tried to storm the embassy with hand grenades and machine guns after detonating a car bomb near the compound walls, according to the ministry and the state-run news agency.
Read the entire CNN article here.