Surprise, surprise. Bruce http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2356165,00.html US Embassy attackers were Syrians By Times Online and Nicholas Blanford in Beirut
The four suspected Islamist militants who attacked the American Embassy in Damascus yesterday were all Syrian, the country's state-run news agency said today. Three of the men, who opened fire on the heavily guarded building with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades, were killed in the shoot-out and the fourth, who was injured, died late last night in hospital, Sana reported today. Yesterday American officials said that Syrian authorities had managed to interrogate the wounded man, but today Syrian security sources said they had been unable to talk to him before he died. The foiling of the assault, which killed one Syrian security guard and injured 13 passers-by, led to a rare expression of gratitude by the US Government towards Syria, which it has repeatedly criticised for meddling in the internal affairs of Lebanon and for failing to adequately suppress Islamist extremism across the Middle East. No Americans were hurt in the gunfire, although a Chinese diplomat in a neighbouring compound was injured by a stray bullet. In an interview with the government newspaper, Ath-Thawra, today, the Syrian Ambassador to Washington said that the attack provided an opportunity to improve relations between the two countries. "The ball is now in the US administration's court," Imad Mustafa told the newspaper. "The policies followed by this administration do not help in improving relations in a positive fashion." "There is a chance to improve these relations because Syria has always believed in dialogue as a means to solving all problems and pending issues," he said. Although the motives and the identity of the perpetrators is yet to confirmed, suspicion has fallen on a little-known al-Qaeda offshoot known as Jund al-Sham, Soldiers of Syria. Ambassador Mustafa told the Associated Press news agency that it was "logically possible" that the group was behind the attack. The assault began shortly after 10am yesterday when four men stepped out of a car beside the white-walled embassy compound in the Ain Roumeineh district of Damascus, shouted "Allahu akbar", Arabic for God is greatest, and opened fire at Syrian security guards. "It was like a movie. I couldn't believe what was happening here in the most secure zone in all of Damascus," Ayman Abdel-Nour, a Syrian MP and reform campaigner who witnessed the gun battle, told The Times. "They opened fire and I saw a security man fall to the ground covered in blood. I knew then it wasn't a movie and started to run." Mr Abdel-Nour said that the battle lasted about 15 minutes and that he heard several explosions. "They were firing rocket-propelled grenades. I could see smoke coming from behind the embassy wall and a couple of broken windows." Sana also reported that Syrian security forces also thwarted a car bomb attack, defusing explosives packed into a vehicle parked in front of the mission. 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