Syria blames Israel for bomb blast
Reuters
Date: 12-13-04
By Inal Ersan
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has blamed Israel's Mossad intelligence service for a bombing in Damascus which a Palestinian source in Beirut said was a failed attempt to kill a member of the militant Hamas group.
Three people were slightly hurt in the explosion which destroyed the silver sports utility vehicle owned by the unidentified Palestinian, who escaped unhurt. The official and his daughter had left the vehicle shortly before the blast.
"The entity behind it is the Mossad, collaborators with the Mossad or the Mossad in particular," Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan told Syrian Satellite Channel when asked about who was suspected to be behind the explosion that targeted what he described as a Palestinian citizen.
In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official called the accusation "nonsense".
"Such nonsense does not warrant a comment. Instead of blaming Israel, the Syrians should be cracking down on the terrorists in their midst, as required by the international community," the official, who requested anonymity, said.
Monday's blast came a day after Hamas and another Palestinian faction killed five Israeli soldiers in a joint attack in the Gaza Strip. Israel has vowed to retaliate for the attack.
SECOND ATTACK IN THREE MONTHS
Monday's blast was the second attack against a Hamas member in Syria in less than three months.
In September, Izz el-Deen al-Sheikh Khalil, 42, a Hamas official was killed in a bomb blast in his car in Damascus and an Israeli television station, citing unidentified security sources, said Israel was behind the attack.
Israeli security officials had earlier vowed to hit Hamas leaders in Palestinian areas and abroad in response to twin bus bombings in that killed 16 people in southern Israel.
The Islamic militant group, behind a wave of suicide attacks that has killed scores of Israelis over the past four years, is sworn to Israel's destruction.
Israel has been demanding that Syria crack down on Palestinian militants as a condition for resuming peace talks deadlocked since 2000.
The Palestinian source in Lebanon said the bomb, placed under the driver's seat, blew up shortly after the unnamed Hamas member and his daughter parked the car and left.
The official Syrian news agency SANA confirmed the car belonged to a Palestinian but gave no details on who he was.
"The car belongs to a Palestinian citizen which indicates an act of sabotage against our Palestinian brothers in Syria," SANA quoted an interior ministry source as saying.
The blast occurred near a hospital and a petrol station which was not damaged.
The vehicle was quickly removed by security and rescue teams who were collecting shrapnel scattered on the street in the Mazze area, resident said.
"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.
Source
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