Suicide bombing at Damascus security building - state TV

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Syrian state television reported a suicide bombing at a "national security" force building in the capital Damascus on Wednesday. It gave no details of casualties.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/18/uk-syria-crisis-explosion-idUKBRE86H0AX20120718

---

Only just breaking.

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Al Jazeera confirms the Syrian defense minister was killed in the bombing

And some suspect his bodyguard was the bomber.

https://twitter.com/AJELive/status/225536095956369411

Interior minister and intelligence chief also wounded

https://twitter.com/AJELive/status/225537482488414208

The bodyguard info comes from here:

https://twitter.com/andrewchappelle/status/225536059801485312

ETA: The AJ story is here:

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syria/syrias-defence-minister-general-daoud-rajha-was-killed-bomb-attack

This is on top of four days of fierce fighting in Damascus:

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syria/fierce-fighting-takes-place-damascus

[Bolo Boffin]

2. Guardian says Assad's brother-in-law also wounded

https://twitter.com/guardianworld/status/225540432539561984

I read this tweet wrong. I thought the interior minister was Assad's BIL, but according to this, the interior minister is another man:

http://www.lebanonwire.com/1207MLN/12070808STR.asp

That's a good run-down of the players in Assad's government, too.

Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Dawoud Rajiha (Christian)

Former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff for the Syrian army
Artillery specialist in the military academy
His inclusion in the inner circle is considered to be politically motivated, rather than merit-based, in order to garner the support of the Christian minority

Oh, boy, he's not just Defense Minister, he's Deputy Prime Minister. I think I would have led with that title. And the suspicion that he's a political appointee? Yikes.

[maddezmom]

6. Reuters banner: Syrian defense minister and Assad's brother-in-law killed in bomb attack;

Syrian defense minister and Assad's brother-in-law killed in bomb attack; interior minister wounded: TV reports

[Bolo Boffin]

7. And I just got a Wapo email alert - they can't confirm the details independently

The only source right now that everyone's quoting is the state-run media.

ETA: Not questioning your report! Maybe Reuters is getting more from somewhere else. It's really moving fast right now.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

3. The bodyguard did it?

That's not good.

Syria's Assad trusts inner circle in fight for survival

July 18, 2012 10:19 AM

Reuters

BEIRUT: As fighting rages in Damascus, and the Assad family that has ruled Syria for four decades struggles for its life against a growing rebellion, a picture is emerging of a tight inner group determined to fight its way out of the crisis, even as support for the government falls away.

At its head is President Bashar al-Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000 and who friend and opponent alike say appears increasingly detached from reality, convinced he is fighting a conspiracy against him and Syria.

Around him is a tight circle of family and clan members, and a security establishment staffed mainly by adherents of the Alawite minority to which the Assads belong, a branch of Shi'ite Islam in a country that is three quarters Sunni.

"Even those who love him feel he can no longer provide security," said Ayman Abdel-Nour, an adviser to Assad until 2007 and now an opposition figure. "They think he is useless and living in a cocoon."

More: http://m.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Jul-18/180986-syrias-assad-trusts-inner-circle-in-fight-for-survival.ashx

[Bolo Boffin]

5. I've only seen that one place right now -- and now two

Lots of stuff flying around on Twitter. (I added a lot of interesting Twitter feeds during the Tahrir Square uprising.)

ETA: Just saw that Reuters has the bodyguard story now, too. They have a state security source.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Reuters now have that on their ticker

on the link I used originally. They have yet to update their main page on the subject.

[maddezmom]

4. Syrian defense minister killed in bombing, state-run media report

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html

[dipsydoodle]

10. edit to remove rubbish

I had written due to false supposition.

[Bolo Boffin]

9. Liwa Al-Islam, a Syrian rebel Islamist group, claims responsibility for Damascus explosion

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/225545752292765696

On Facebook!

[al bupp]

14. AJE: Islamic Brigade and the Free Syrian Army both claim responsibility for the attacks

[link:http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syria/two-groups-claim-responsibility-damascus-blast|
Two groups claim responsibility of Damascus blast]

[brooklynite]

11. AJE reporting Interior Minister (Assad's BIL) may have also died.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Reuters dispute that on the news ticker

on main link above. Says : Breaking News: Syrian state TV says interior minister is alive, in "stable condition", after Arab TV stations reported his death

I'd referred to that in the post I edited out when I fell into the trap of believing the Interior Minister and the Defense Minister were one and the same.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

13. Damascus blast kills Syrian defence minister

General Daoud Rajha is fatally wounded in suicide bomb attack on the National Security headquarters in Damascus.

Al Jazeera
July 18, 2012

The Syrian defence minister has been killed and several other senior security officials wounded after a suicide bomber struck the National Security building in Damascus during a meeting of cabinet ministers and senior security officials.

State television confirmed General Daoud Rajha was killed in Wednesday's suicide blast.

According to Al Manar TV Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and head of the national security office Hisham Bekhtyar were all killed in the blast.

Syrian state TV said that several other participants in a top-level meeting who were wounded in the blast had been rushed to Al-Shami hospital in the capital.

More: http://m.aljazeera.com/Story/20127189355415804

[bemildred]

15. It won't be long now ... nt

[UnrepentantLiberal]

16. Some say Assad could leave within a matter of days.

[bemildred]

18. If you cannot protect your security apparatus, your capital, you can't protect anything much at all.

That's why 9/11 freaked us out.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

17. Panetta: Syria 'Spinning Out of Control'

By Kevin Baron
National Journal
July 18, 2012

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday that Syria was “spinning out of control” just hours after an apparent suicide blast killed of the regime’s defense minister and deputy defense minister in a stunning attack on a government building in Damascus.

“It’s obvious that what is happening in Syria represents a real escalation in the fighting,” Panetta said of the attacks which claimed the lives of highest-ranking officials known in the 16-month conflict to date.

“This is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control,” he added, arguing that “the violence there has only gotten worse” as Bashar al-Assad’s regime has ignored “all of the concerns that we’ve expressed about the need for Assad to step down, the need for a peaceful transition.”

Panetta called on the international community to “bring maximum pressure” on the regime, but made no offers of Western military assistance. Syrian fighters pouring into Turkey have pleaded for direct military intervention against Assad.

More: http://mobile.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/panetta-syria-spinning-out-of-control--20120718

[harun]

19. How many of Assad's inner circle are going to stick around when this is what

happens to them?

[bemildred]

20. Bomb kills Assad army chiefs; "decisive" Damascus battle

(Reuters) - A bomber killed three of Bashar al-Assad's top military officials on Wednesday - including his powerful brother-in-law - in a devastating blow to the Syrian leader's inner circle as rebels closed in, vowing to "liberate" the capital.

Assad's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, was one of the principal figures in the tight, clan-based ruling elite that has been battling to put down a 16-month rebellion against four decades of rule by Assad and his father.

---

Late into the night on Wednesday there was no sign of a letup in fighting in the capital, the worst since the uprising began, a resident reached by telephone said.

Intense clashes were reported in the central districts of Mezze and Kafar Souseh, while a police station in the Hajar al-Aswad district was in flames. Army artillery was shelling the capital from the surrounding mountains as night fell.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/18/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120718

[may3rd]

21. Syrian activists warn Assad by circulating new video of Qaddafi’s death

Activists have access to public airwaves via the tightly controlled internet and are taunting Assad loyalists, if not Assad himself



....Sami al-Hamwi, a Syrian activist, who tweeted the circulated video posted on YouTube, warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to remember what has happened to the Libyan dictator

....
In the new video, however, he was shown dead, bloody and wearing nothing on the top. He was surrounded by rebels inside a van with its back doors open to transfer him to a stretcher.

...
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/07/18/227047.html

Assad will not see september in his current capacity by the looks and sounds outside his fortress walls