SYRIA is in the limelight again. This time not for its alleged "support" of terrorism, but becoming its victim. On Tuesday evening, loud explosions rocked the capital Damascus followed by exchange of gunfire in the upper class Al- Mazze neighbourhood. According to official releases, a gun battle between four "terrorists" and Syrian security forces resulted in the deaths of two of the attackers, one policeman and a bystander. One assailant was seriously injured and the other was arrested. According to Syrian security officials, the assailants had detonated a car bomb, damaging a deserted former UN building. State-run TV released footage of what it called a storehouse in Damascus that contained gun rockets, machine guns, bombs and gas cylinders which it claimed was "used by a group that attacked Al-Mazze diplomatic district". Syria's reputation as a safe, albeit strict, police state with ultra tight security measures triggered questions on the significance of Tuesday's incident. "The state did not issue a statement on what happened. Two assailants were killed and we don't know anything about the other two. And more importantly, we're talking about an attack on an empty building," Syrian opposition figure Haitham Maleh told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone interview from Damascus. "We don't know what were they attacking, what was their plan and who are they." Maleh said he was 100 metres away from the scene when he heard "very loud and heavy explosions" and saw "very heavy smoke" that "couldn't have possibly been caused by grenades. They sounded like bombs." The former UN building is adjacent to the British Embassy, he noted, "which could have easily been targetted, but apparently wasn't, which triggers questions on what this group really wanted to do." After it was accused of supporting terrorism by the US, Tuesday's events put Damascus in a different position, at least for the moment. Syrian political commentator Emad Shoeib was quick to accuse Al-Qa'eda of the attack, while both Syria's ambassador to Washington and the UN blamed the attack on the repercussions of the war on Iraq. The incident comes in the wake of Jordan's announcement days ago of foiling an alleged Al-Qa'eda planned chemical bomb attack in Amman. It also comes three days after a suicide bombing in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which hit the General Security building and killed two police officers and injured 148 people. Egyptian analyst Diaa Raswhan dismissed the Al-Qa'eda link as unfounded and weak, arguing that Syria was never the target of Al-Qa'eda or any other Islamic group for that matter. "Syria might want to make some political gains from this," he suggested.
