"The Syrian police forces did their job, and they were
professional about it," said the White House press
secretary, Tony Snow. "Now, the next step is for Syria to
play a constructive role in the war on terror. Stop
harbouring terrorist groups, stop being an agent in
fomenting terror, and work with us to fight against terror,
as Libya has done."
If the US responds this way to a failed attack, imagine how much stronger the
pressure would have been if the attack had succeeded, which it almost did. Makes
one wonder who was behind the attack. As they are blaming Al Qaeda, then we must
suspect US intelligence agencies, and only the US & Israel would have gained
from such an attack.
rkm
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Original source URL:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/praise-for-syria-but-us-keeps-up-the-pressure/2006/09/13/1157827018275.html
Praise for Syria but US keeps up the pressure
September 14, 2006
Damascus briefly eased pressure between Syria and Washington as US officials
thanked Syria for defending the embassy.
But the attack also raised questions about the Syrian Government's grip on
security.
"We appreciate the response of the Syrian security forces to help secure our
territory," the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said. However, other
Bush Administration officials referred to long-standing tensions with Syria,
which remains on the US's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"The Syrian police forces did their job, and they were professional about it,"
said the White House press secretary, Tony Snow. "Now, the next step is for
Syria to play a constructive role in the war on terror. Stop harbouring
terrorist groups, stop being an agent in fomenting terror, and work with us to
fight against terror, as Libya has done."
The Syrian embassy in Washington blasted US policy in the Middle East as having
"fuelled extremism, terrorism and anti-US sentiment. The US should Š start
looking at the root causes of terrorism and broker a comprehensive peace in the
Middle East," a spokesman said.
Four suspected Islamist militants hurled hand grenades and sprayed machine-gun
fire in an attempt to storm the US embassy on Tuesday, but were gunned down by
Syrian forces.
Three were killed, as was a Syrian guard. The fourth attacker died of his wounds
in hospital before he could be interrogated, Syrian officials said yesterday.
Timed explosives rigged to a stolen van at the embassy gate failed to go off.
The Syrian Government blamed the attack on a little-known hardline Sunni
militant group that calls itself Jund al-Sham, or Soldiers of the Levant,
allegedly linked to al-Qaeda.
A political analyst, Ayman Abdel Nour, said he had just got out of his car when
a vehicle pulled up outside the embassy and the gunmen leaped out. "I thought
they were filming something, because it was the middle of the day, in the middle
of the most secure area in Damascus," Mr Nour said. "Then one of them fell down
near me and I saw the blood."
The embassy has been at the heart of a stony diplomatic relationship in recent
years. The American ambassador was recalled after the February 2005
assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, in Beirut.
A United Nations report accused Syrian intelligence of complicity in the
assassination, a charge Syria denies.
In recent weeks, the US and Israel accused Syria of funnelling weapons to
Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. But the anti-American sentiment that has flared
in the Middle East since the war in Iraq also bedevilled Syria.
Secular Syria's blood feud with Islamists long predates the Iraq war. The regime
is dominated by members of the Allawite sect, a Shiite offshoot rejected by
hardline Sunnis.
"The Syrian Government is a secular one and the Baath party itself is secular,
so it's considered by al-Qaeda and others as a pro-Western regime," a Syrian
official said. "So Syria is attacked by those groups, and meanwhile the USA is
accusing Syria of belonging to the same groups. Both sides are greatly
mistaken."
Los Angeles Times
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