Assad’s brother-in-law and top Syrian officials killed in Damascus suicide bomb

The state-run news agency SANA reported that Wednesday’s blast took place at
the National Security building, a headquarters for one of Syria’s
intelligence branches. Activists in Damascus said by telephone that
Republican Guards sealed off the Shami hospital in the capital after
ambulances had brought casualties from the site of the explosion.

“The terrorist suicide bombing” came in the high security Rawda
district in the heart of the capital as battles raged in Damascus for the
fourth consecutive day.

There were “badly wounded” among ministers and officials, the
broadcaster said.

Gen Shawkat was the deputy Minister of Defense of Syria since September 2011.
He previously served as the army’s deputy chief of staff from July 2009 to
September 2011.

Gen Shawkat was considered one of the president’s top security chiefs,
however, he was replaced in 2010 as head of Military Intelligence and made
deputy chief-of-staff of the armed forces.

A claim of responsibility was posted on Facebook by Liwa al-Islam, a rebel
group. Translated as “The Brigade of Islam”, it said in a
statement that it “targeted the cell called the crisis control room in
the capital of Damascus.”

The Free Syrian Army also claimed responsibility for the attack, according to
spokesman Qassim Saadedine. “This is the volcano we talked about, we
have just started,” he said.

Syrian opposition leader Kamal al-Labwani told al-Arabiya, a satellite
channel, that a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army planted a TNT and
C-4-based device inside the building ahead of the meeting, and then detonate
the bomb remotely before fleeing to safety.

Gen Hisham Ikhtiyar, head of National Security, were among those listed as
wounded in the bombing, which came in the midst of an offensive launched by
rebels to capture Damascus. There were conflicting reports about the fate of
the Interior minister, Mohammed al-Shaar

The capital has seen four straight days of clashes pitting government troops
against rebels – an unprecedented challenge to government rule in the
tightly controlled capital.

Rajha, a former army general, was the most senior Christian government
official in Syria. Assad appointed him to the post last year.

His death will resonate with Syria’s minority Christian population, who make
up about 10 percent of Syria’s population and have generally stood by the
regime.

Christians say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the
country of 22 million people, and they are fearful that Syria will become
another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Muslim
groups.

Columns of black smoke rose over the capital, with the Local Coordination
Committees, which organises anti-regime protests on the ground, reporting
that Qaboon and Barzeh neighbourhoods were bombarded by loyalist forces.

It also said there was less traffic than normal in the city where fighting has
raged since Sunday, with the rebels announcing a full-scale offensive dubbed “the
Damascus volcano and earthquakes of Syria.”

Regime forces and the FSA clashed in the Al-Midan and Zahira districts of
Damascus as well as at Assali south of the city.

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