Posted on 12/13/2004 10:56:34 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
Syria on Monday accused Israel of being behind a car bomb that targeted a Palestinian member of Hamas in the Mazzah neighborhood of the Syrian capital.
A passer-by was wounded in the explosion, but the Hamas member and his wife, who left the car minutes before the blast, were unhurt.
Speaking to Syrian state-run television, Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan said a bomb placed under the seat of the vehicle exploded minutes after the Palestinian man and his wife stepped out for a dentist's appointment.
An Interior Ministry official said that the explosion was aimed at Palestinians living in Syria.
"The vehicle is owned by a Palestinian. This points to a subversive action against Palestinian brothers in Syria," the unnamed official told the state-run news agency SANA.
"This is the second incident in which an explosion targets a Hamas member," a Palestinian source said. He said the bomb, placed under the driver's seat, blew up shortly after the unnamed Hamas member and his daughter had parked the car and left it.
One passerby was slightly injured and treated in hospital. The blast occurred near a hospital and a petrol station, which was not damaged.
The silver sports utility vehicle was quickly removed by Syrian security and rescue teams who were collecting shrapnel scattered on the street in the Mazzah area, they said.
Residents said the car had Syrian licence plates.
"The explosion was so strong that the door blew open in my house and windows were shattered in the whole building," resident Issam Abdul Wahid told Reuters.
"There was nobody in the car. I was extinguishing it and there was nobody in it," he added.
Three months ago, senior Hamas official Iz a-Din al Sheikh Khalil was killed when a bomb exploded in his car in the Syrian capital.
There was no official confirmation of Israeli involvement in the assassination of Khalil, but unnamed Israeli security sources at the time said that the operation was carried out by Israel.
"Some people lead dangerous lives," an Israeli official said in response to Khalil's killing.
Ping!
Great answer!
Yeah, I don't think that's a Mossad operation...
A couple of months ago Syria ginned up a phony terrorist attack in Damascus.
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
How do they know his wife didn't leave her purse behind and someone accidently kicked it?
If the clown was a crispy critter, I'd believe it.
Agreed. The Mossad would do it better.
Damn!...They missed him...Damn!
Could be that the Syrians are starting to send a message that they don't want to be the international trailer park for terrorists anymore.
Actually the Mossad killed many terrorists by using car bombs, including those of the Black September group (founded by the PLO)that murdered 11 Israelis in the Olympic Games, and including many terrorists in Lebanon during the Peace For Galilee operation and before it.
Therefore there is no way that the Mossad would have missed the corrent terrorist, so this is wasnt likely to be a Mossad's operation.
Yep. You're right. If Israel was actually behind it, the Hamas feller and his wif would've been blown to smitherines......
"What a joke. One group has the technology to make the desert bloom and the other relies on 8 year olds with C-4 and carpentry screws in their school bags. Only an arab/ape would be dumb enough to think the Israelis would use a car bomb."
Actually, they have before.
If the Isrealis wanted to get him, the would have got him. They hardly ever miss... It was probably one of the endless internecine assassination attempts by another faction.
Hmm...so...it's a BAD thing if Israel sets off a car-bomb to take out a Hamas-hole...
But it's OK for Pali-scum to blow up school buses?
Let's just say that Israel is just "doing the Jobs that the UN won't do"...after all, it works for the PRO-ILLEGAL INFILTRATOR crowd here on FR and in the US in general!
Agreed. Dollars to donuts it was a Syrian secret service operation meant to look like a Mossad action to frame Israel. Though the Hamas guy survived, I'll bet the Syrian and Hamas spin machines will start saying it was an "Israeli plot" and get the heathens all in an uproar. My opinion is that the closer the days get to the PA "election" and the starting of the umpteenth round of the "peace process" (more like banging one's head against a brick wall process) - there will be more incidents like this and the one that happened at the Gaza checkpoint on Sunday. There are interests on the other side that want to sabotage any moves toward peace.
Here is a better source about the Syrian claim for an Israeli work by Jerusalem Post:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1102907976140
A Hamas terrorist survived a bombing Monday that destroyed his vehicle on a Damascus street shortly after he and his family stepped out, the Palestinian militant group said.
Hamas and the Syrian government blamed Israeli intelligence agents for the 3:45 p.m. explosion that slightly injured three passers-by and shattered the windows of several nearby apartments.
Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan said a bomb placed under the seat of the vehicle exploded minutes after the Palestinian driver, his wife and daughter stepped out.
"The party behind this collaborates with the Israeli Mossad, or is the Mossad itself," he said on Syrian television. His comments were carried by Syria's official SANA news agency.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas' deputy political bureau leader, said the vehicle belonged to a Palestinian member of Hamas. He would not give his name or position in the organization.
Asked whether Israel was behind the attack, Abu Marzouk replied: "You can say that."
A senior Israeli official said he knew nothing of the incident but noted that Syria always blames Israel for acts on its territory.
Israeli security officials did claim responsibility for a September 26 car bombing in Damascus that killed Hamas leader Izz Eldine Subhi Sheikh Khalil and wounded three bystanders. That attack came more than three weeks after twin suicide bombings in southern Israel that killed 16 Israelis.
Monday's explosion came a day after Palestinian militants detonated 1.5 tons of explosives on an Israeli army outpost on the Gaza-Egypt border, killing five soldiers and wounding five. Hamas said it had dug an 800-meter (yard)-long tunnel over four months to reach the outpost. It and gunmen with ties to the ruling Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hamas, whose top political leaders have their headquarters in Damascus, has carried out numerous suicide bombings and killed hundreds of Israelis. In addition to Hamas, other militant and radical Palestinian guerrilla groups have set up headquarters in Damascus. Syria is also home to 450,000 Palestinian refugees.
Kenaan, the Syrian interior minister, said three passers-by were lightly injured in Monday's explosion.
A security official at the scene said a passer-by was injured in the leg in the explosion. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
Workers from a nearby gas station helped put out the fire in the car. Police arrived at the scene and the vehicle was towed away less than an hour later and municipal workers cleared the street of any debris.
"It sounded and felt like an earthquake," said Deeb Mahfouz, 57, who lives on the first floor of an apartment building next to where the vehicle was parked. "There were screams on the street. We thought that an old house across the street collapsed. Then I saw smoke shooting up from the car."
"I was studying when I heard the explosion and went out to look," area resident Urwa Shatti, 14, said. "Then I saw a man being hauled into a taxi cab with injuries."
Wooden doors were blown off their frames and the windows were shattered in Rihab Abbas's residence next to the explosion. "The car was completely smashed," the 28-year-old housewife said, adding that she helped by providing the men with water to try to extinguish the fire.
Another witness, 25-year-old Anas Mawlawi, said his 40-year-old aunt who lives in one of the buildings suffered cuts from flying glass. He would not give her name.
The explosion, the third in the Syrian capital this year, was the second in the Mazzah neighborhood
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