 DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian state-run media on Saturday implicitly blamed a militant attack in Damascus on the United States, Israel and their regional supporters. Security forces fought Islamic militants near the Defense Ministry Friday in a gunbattle that left four militants and a police officer dead, the government said. Six insurgents were captured, including two who were wounded. Two policemen also were injured.
"What happened in the heart of Damascus is a practical translation of the American-Israeli threats. Targeting Syria is still an official policy of the U.S. administration, the Tel Aviv leaders and some weak-willed people who have sold themselves for evil in exchange of a handful of dollars," the state-run daily Tishrin said in an editorial.
| Because everyone knows the Zionists are in cahoots with Islamicists to overthrow the rightful, peace-loving government of Assad. |
Syria's official news agency, SANA, said all 10 militants in Friday's attack were "takfiris," or Sunni Muslim extremists who declare non-radical Muslims to be infidels.
| Sure sounds like Americans, don't it? |
Security forces have had occasional shootouts with Islamic militants in the Syrian capital. Militants in some previous clashes belonged to Jund al-Sham, or Soldiers of Syria, which was formed in Afghanistan by Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian militants with links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq.
| Obviously a Zionist front. And Zarqawi is a CIA plant. Pass it on. |
SANA said police seized 10 U.S.-made assault rifles and several country-made homemade bombs. Tishrin said the rifles were an implicit U.S. and Israeli threat to the country, "as if it was meant to send an urgent message to the leadership and the people of Syria to realize the dangers of ... confronting projects that are hostile to Syria and the Arab nation."
| The rifles might be a threat to Baby Assad, true ... |
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