In the biggest security breach of the Assad regime’s four-decade iron
grip on power, a bomb ripped through a meeting of Syria’s top security
chiefs in Damascus Wednesday, killing the serving and former defense
ministers and President Bashar al-Assad’s powerful brother-in-law.
The rebel Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the blast that killed Assef Shawkat, husband of Assad’s sister, as well as Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister and Assad’s top security advisor, making it the single most devastating blow to the regime of the 16-month rebellion.
“It was an explosive device planted inside the meeting room and triggered with a remote control," deputy head of the FSA, Col. Malek al-Kurdi, told CNN.
Syrian state TV said the explosion had been a suicide bombing, as did a security source quoted by Reuters who said the bomber was the bodyguard of one of the security chiefs.
Hisham Ehketyar, the head of National Security and another leading architect of the regime’s crackdown, was reported to be seriously wounded in his legs, while Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar was also wounded but in a stable condition, according to state-run Syria TV. The final death toll from the bomb is not yet known and there may be other high-profile casualties yet disclosed by the regime.
Ayman Abdel Nour, a former advisor to Assad, who defected in 2007 but maintains close contacts within the ruling elites, said his sources corroborated the Free Syrian Army’s claims that the bomb had been placed inside the offices of the National Security headquarters in central Damascus, one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country.
Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/120718/syria-damascus-bomb-assad-end
The rebel Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the blast that killed Assef Shawkat, husband of Assad’s sister, as well as Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister and Assad’s top security advisor, making it the single most devastating blow to the regime of the 16-month rebellion.
“It was an explosive device planted inside the meeting room and triggered with a remote control," deputy head of the FSA, Col. Malek al-Kurdi, told CNN.
Syrian state TV said the explosion had been a suicide bombing, as did a security source quoted by Reuters who said the bomber was the bodyguard of one of the security chiefs.
Hisham Ehketyar, the head of National Security and another leading architect of the regime’s crackdown, was reported to be seriously wounded in his legs, while Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar was also wounded but in a stable condition, according to state-run Syria TV. The final death toll from the bomb is not yet known and there may be other high-profile casualties yet disclosed by the regime.
Ayman Abdel Nour, a former advisor to Assad, who defected in 2007 but maintains close contacts within the ruling elites, said his sources corroborated the Free Syrian Army’s claims that the bomb had been placed inside the offices of the National Security headquarters in central Damascus, one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country.
Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/120718/syria-damascus-bomb-assad-end
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