Bomb kills Syrian ministers at heart of Assad rule
Syria »
1 of 5. Daoud Rajha is sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) in Damascus in this October 9, 2011 file photo. Rajha was killed by a bomb which exploded during a meeting of ministers and security officials at a national security building in Damascus on July 18, 2012, state television said. Picture taken October 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/SANA/Files

By Dominic Evans and Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BEIRUT/AMMAN | Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:16pm BST

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria's defence minister and President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law were killed in a Damascus suicide bomb attack carried out by a bodyguard on Wednesday, the most serious blow to Assad's high command in the country's 16-month-old rebellion.

The bomber, said by a security source to be a bodyguard assigned to Assad's inner circle, struck a meeting attended by ministers and senior security officials as battles raged within sight of the presidential palace.

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State television said Defence Minister Daoud Rajha and Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, the deputy defence minister, had been killed in a "terrorist bombing" and pledged to wipe out "criminal gangs".

A Syrian security source confirmed Shawkat, 62, - a pillar of Assad's rule - was killed and said intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar was wounded. State television said Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar had also been wounded in the blast.

The men form the core of a military crisis unit led by Assad to take charge of crushing the revolt and the authorities immediately appointed a new defence minister, Fahad Jassim al-Freij, previously the armed forces' chief of staff, to avoid appearing paralysed by the attack.

Assad has not appeared in public since the attack or made any statement, but sources with knowledge of the situation said he was not at the meeting where it took place.

The explosion appeared to be part of a coordinated assault on the fourth day of fighting in the capital which rebel fighters have called the "liberation of Damascus".

Five explosions were heard later on Wednesday close to the base of the elite 4th armoured division, led by Assad's brother Maher, residents said. The division has been instrumental in confronting dissent, quelling protests in Deraa, Homs and Idlib.

Rebels say they have brought reinforcements from outside the city to end four decades of rule by the Assad family by attacking the power base of the ruling elite for the first time.

Republican Guard troops sealed off the Shami hospital near the site of the explosion at the security meeting, activists said. An army statement issued after the blast said Syria was "more determined than ever to confront all forms of terrorism and chop off any hand that harms national security".

An army barracks near the "palace of the people", a huge Soviet-style complex overlooking the city from the western district of Dummar, came under rebel fire around 7.30 a.m. (0430 GMT), activists and a resident said.

"I could hear the sound of small arms fire, and explosions are getting louder and louder from the direction of the barracks," Yasmine, an architect, said by telephone from Dummar.

Dummar is a secure area containing many auxiliary installations for the presidential palace and the barracks is just hundreds of meters from the palace itself.

REBEL CLAIMS

Two rebel groups claimed the attack on the security meeting.

"This is the volcano we talked about, we have just started," said Qassim Saadedine, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, a group of army defectors and Sunni youths.

Liwa al-Islam, an Islamist rebel group whose name means "The Brigade of Islam", said it had carried out the attack after weeks of planning and gave a different version of events.

"Our men managed to plant improvised explosives in the building for the meeting. We had been planning this for over a month," a spokesman for the group, who asked to be identified as Abu Ammar, said by telephone.

State television said earlier that it was a suicide bombing.

"The terrorist explosion which targeted the national security building in Damascus occurred during a meeting of ministers and a number of heads of (security) agencies," it said.

Fighting also erupted overnight in the southern neighbourhoods of Asali and Qadam, and Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun - mainly Sunni Muslim districts housing Damascenes and Palestinian refugees.

Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has held power in Syria since a 1963 coup.

It has endured more than a year of rebellion but recent high level defections signalled support beginning to fall away.

Two Syrian brigadier-generals were among 600 Syrians who fled from Syria to Turkey overnight, a Turkish official said on Wednesday, bringing the number of Syrian generals sheltering in Turkey to 20, including a retired general.

OPPOSITION CAUTIOUS

In Damascus, government troops used heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns against rebels moving deep in residential neighbourhoods, armed mostly with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

Rebels directed their fire overnight at a large state facility turned headquarters for pro-Assad militia, known as shabbiha, drawn mainly from Alawite enclaves in nearby hills.

Army tanks and anti-aircraft guns, used as an infantry weapon, took positions in the northern neighbourhood of Barzeh, where hundreds of families from the neighbouring district of Qaboun are seeking shelter.

"Anti-aircraft guns are firing at Qaboun from Barzeh. There are lots of families in the streets with no place to stay. They came from Qaboun and from the outskirts of Barzeh," said Bassem, one of the activists, speaking by telephone from Barzeh.

In the central neighbourhood of Midan tanks and infantry fighting vehicles known as BDMs took positions in main thoroughfares and sporadic fighting was reported.

"Armour have not been able to enter the alleyways and old streets of Midan. The neighbourhoods of old Zahra and the old area near Majed mosque are in the hands of the rebels," said Abu Mazen, an activist in the district.

Rebel fighters have called the intensified guerrilla attacks in recent days, which have targeted shabbiha buses, unmarked intelligence patrols and armoured vehicles in the capital, the battle "for the liberation of Damascus".

But senior opposition figures took a more nuanced view.

"It is going to be difficult to sustain supply lines and the rebels may have to make a tactical withdrawal at one point, like they did in other cities," veteran opposition activist Fawaz Tello said from Istanbul.

"But what is clear is that Damascus has joined the revolt," Tello, a Damascene, told Reuters. "By hitting well known Sunni districts of the city, such as Midan, the regime is exposing the sectarian nature of the crackdown."

The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to vote later on Wednesday in New York on a Western-backed resolution that threatens Assad's government with sanctions unless he stops using heavy weapons in towns and cities. Russia has declared it will block the move.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes and Erika Soloman in Beirut and Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Peter Millership and Giles Elgood)

Not bad although its almost 2 years now in the uprising, for all the BS about turks not responding to the syrians downing there jet, we have in actual fact completely devastated Assads regime, one F-4 and a few PKK attacks in comparison to supporting a full on rebellion is an amazing casualty rate. The new sunni government to take over after Assad will not forget how the kurds flirted with Assad and who activley supported them, we will finally have a brother state on our border.

Is this the answer to Özel's remarks?
10 days ago he said "You'll see what we'll do when we do it".

BTW is this turkish camo.. Its from FSA in Latakia,Syria.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqYbMlYrCFg&feature=player_embedded

Congratulations MIT


-Atam Sen Kalkta Ben YATAM

I think it s not a concidence that Erdogan gone to Russia and attack happend,the attack implies how deep we are in Syria and what we can do if we want,i think if Esad had been target he had already died... it is a hard message ...

^ ^ ^
Are you fvcking serious..? You actually think a turrko was the one that planted the bomb..?



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No, Turks here and Syrian government claim, Turkey is responsible for this covert operation.

Syria played for the Turkish pawn. Turkey directly played for the Syrian Castle/Rock.

It was stunnning.

I withdraw all my comments towards AKP back.

AUDACES FORTUNA IUVAT

Are you fcking serious about your question???Even Asad is sure:)It's mutual or single operation by intellengence agencies and turkish intellegence is in it...

"Turks here and Syrian government claim, Turkey is responsible for this covert operation. "

What Turks claim here claim is as credible as what Syrian government claims, zero.

Being a minority regime there is good chance this is an internal case of backstabbing rather than foreign involvement.

To be honest I highly doubt our intelligence agency have the capability for such complex infiltration operations considering PKK leaders across the world walk freely.





"One day my mortal body will turn to dust, but the Turkish Republic will stand forever." M. Kemal Ataturk

It is not Turkish style.

____________________________________________________________

If proved that turkey is involved in this...then it's pretty certain Assad will answer with chemicals.

98th Medical Battalion taking positions for combat!

You mean Turkey will finally have a "brother" bandit state on its border:
Zaman: Getting rid of a bandit state

Keep in mind you subhuman ignorant Turks are so stupid, are such liars, you didn't even know or want to acknowledge MIT and your criminal TSK also burned down your "Turkish" forests just to get at Kurds.

Keep in mind you subhumans who cheerleaded the Yugoslav wars totally want to ignore that all the Wahabis and Salafists that fought with the Bosnian muslim and Albanian excrements never left. They are there today forcing Islamic dictates and fundamentalism on the local population. I look forward to them doing the same to Turks and ending this fake secularism of Turks.

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Why is vaseline in my sig? Because Turks don't want to read what I post. Hopefully the lube makes it easier for those criminal scum who are such great cry-babies to swallow.

@nikephoros

How is this even relevant? are you just high or something?



Victory Through Air Power

What is relevant is your stupidity and ignorance.

You scum Turks don't realize the price of your many crimes on your own society. Many of those Islamic fundamentalists you hosted are not gonna leave and they are gonna be helping their Turkish fundamentalist cousins end your fake secular experiment.

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Why is vaseline in my sig? Because Turks don't want to read what I post. Hopefully the lube makes it easier for those criminal scum who are such great cry-babies to swallow.

@Nikepheros

Why do you have so much hatred towards us?

Lol, a Turkish scum hypocrite talking about hatred.

Look at your whole culture, history and nationalist ethos -- you will find your hatred there.

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Why is vaseline in my sig? Because Turks don't want to read what I post. Hopefully the lube makes it easier for those criminal scum who are such great cry-babies to swallow.

@nike

Even if you were right, they were in the past.what had happened ,just happened.
I would recommend you to read the book called "The Third Chimpanzee"by Jared Diamond.It shows that we,humans, are all not different from each other.Your racist behavior is just nonsense.while you,greeks, are treated like a second class person in europe how can you be racist towards others.
The blood feud or vendetta has no place in modern societies.
The kids can not be responsible for the acts of their fathers.Would you accept to be responsible for the atrocities carried out by greeks in the past?(paulians,turks,macadenions etc).

Extreme racism like yours is a mental disorder.You should get some help.

He has an identity crises. He doesn't want to be Greek anymore and is jealous on other powerful people. He doesn't want to be the grasseater any more but the predator, a wolf, a Turk.

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New Greek multinational firm:

Arab.taka.taka, I have read Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by the same author, Jared Diamond. Your lies do not impress me. We are not like you an-alphabetic Turkish cousin fvcker, see:
G&T Thread: Greeks publish more books, value knowledge more than Arabic Turks

Turks are one of the most racist, imperialist people. WAFF Turks spend most their time bragging for atrocities and crimes. For recent proof, see this thread where Turks cheer the terrorist attack on Israeli civilians by their terrorist Islamic cousins:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/248068/thread/1342629134/

Also the whole purpose of this thread was for Turkkan and other Turks to gloat that Islamic fundamentalists terrorists supported by your bandit state are overthrowing the Assad regime in a reign of terror and murder. But hypocrite Turkish refuse like arab.taka.taka have no concept of shame and instead want to castigate always non-Turks... I am just here to point out your hypocrisy and expose your lies. You subhumans want to ignore that all the Islamic terror networks you support mean lots of terrorists transit and reside in your country. They will impose Islamic sharia on your population too -- but you want to ignore this to only brag for the "benefits" of attacking your neighbors.

Sig:
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Why is vaseline in my sig? Because Turks don't want to read what I post. Hopefully the lube makes it easier for those criminal scum who are such great cry-babies to swallow.

@Nike

The link you gave us is not correct and it doesnt have correct information.while it says title production 27000 in turkey and new title 5700,at the same time it gives title and new production together for greece which is 9579.well?i guess 27000 is bigger than 9579.
Well,we know wikipedia is not a good reference,but this one is with sources.so you can verify it.
Books published per country per year
15)Turkey (2011) 43,100 books [17]
43) Greece (2002) 6,826 books [36]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year
Again,Turkey is a 15th country with 43100 books,while greece is 43rd with 6826 books.
i am sure turks didnt include pirate books(which is a bit problem in turkey).

Besides,I guess you didn't really understand what Jared Diomand was about.I suggest you reading "third chimpanzee".
you do the same thing that you criticize,but you dont see it.
It is you and your fellow greeks who blame us of being radical islamists.Although we are all muslims, Majority of turks here are not radical islamists.Majority of turks here are secular. You keep calling us "arabs","islamists" as if being arab or islamist is a crime.
you should go and look in the mirror.You make me laugh,you don't see that you are a joke in all over the world,but you try to insult other with nonsense things.Greeks who look like middle easterners play to be " hitler the junior".What a joke.
you put "arab" in front of my nickname,i guess you do that just to insult me.
Ok,i get it "greek nikepheros".

1) Idiot boy, I compared "new titles" produced each year between Greece and Turkey. Much fewer Greeks produce more new titles than your ignorant madrassa subhuman Arabic-Kurdish-Turkish composite nation. Turkish liars and braggers do not even have the brains to compare apples to apples.
2) Stop lying. Turkish culture and ethos is rife with ultra-nationalism.
3) Your racist nation brags for crimes against Israeli civilians, Syrian civilians, Kurd civilians, Armenian civilians, Greek civilians, etc. You have no pedestal to decry or declaim against others. Drown yourself.
4) All the "fake secular" Turks of Waff support funny enough Islamic radicals all the time, anything to get at the enemy.

Your subhuman nation can brag now, but in the future you will be surrounded by enemies. Even if the Assad is ousted as subhumans like Turkkan brag, what do you get exactly by bordering Islamic Brotherhood and Alqaeda elements? Do you think they will not force Turks to live an even more fundamentalist lifestyle like they do already in the Balkans where muhji fighters settled?



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Why is vaseline in my sig? Because Turks don't want to read what I post. Hopefully the lube makes it easier for those criminal scum who are such great cry-babies to swallow.

43100 books per year in Turkey .I guess you will need a K-Y JELLY for that.you wanted,you'll have it.
BY the way,No one believes in greek statistics anymore,but trust me 43100 book+plus, as real as me:

Everything you say are lies.You twist every bit of information.You interpret thing deliberately in a wrong way.You are pitiable.

How can a nation who says "In GrEEcE only clock and the FooLS work" can be taken seriously?
you produce nothing,maybe feta cheese and lots of just Lies.

Read them,no one believes in your FiGuRes,your statements.
'Lies, Damned Lies and GREEK Statistics'

http://cicerossongs.blogspot.fr/2010/01/lies-damn-lies-and-greek-statistics.html
In fact the FT now reports that the positions is even worse than was feared. In fact, virtually all the Greek statistics are lies or meaningless.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/world/europe/14greek.html
Greek Statistician Is Caught in Limelight

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-world-from-berlin-lies-damned-lies-and-greek-statistics-a-678205.html
'Lies, Damned Lies and Greek Statistics'

http://www.greekdefaultwatch.com/2010/10/lies-damn-lies-and-greek-statistics.html

If Turkey is behind it don`t expect any sympathy from anyonne the next time
PKK smacks the living sh1t outta your soldiers or your people. If true your
goverment is the same sh1t.

Turkish microbe that needs cleansing, Arab-taka-taka, you are comparing once against dissimilar items. If you look to that thread I cited the Frankfurt bookfair statistics and the Greek Book Center(EKEBI). Back when I created that thread Turkey was actually the guest of honor, they compiled the statistics and gave new title production. Your dumb Arabesque as3 is comparing total Turkish title production to Greek new titles.

You are also b1tching in a thread where Turks brag for Islamic fundamentalist terrorist about Greek racism and "racist Nikephoros". You are also in the same thread spreading your sorry "Turks are secular" myths!

Take a bath, mangy, dirty Turk! I feel so dirty just by typing against your garbage...

Sig:
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Why is vaseline in my sig? Because Turks don't want to read what I post. Hopefully the lube makes it easier for those criminal scum who are such great cry-babies to swallow.

@Nike

What is wrong with you?What don't you get it?
it is you who provides the statistics to other organizations or to other institutes.Now,everyone knows greeks statitistics are just lies.No one takes greek stats seriously.Why should we?no one trust the statistics you give to international organizations.You always try to show off with altered numbers.you just make up numbers,like we dont have any debt,or like we publish lots of books.Just show off,but the truth always comes out.
We have clear numbers ,go to the union of Turkish publishers and you will see the all the details.
Besides,We don't read Mangas,we read serious stuff.

..................

"don`t expect any sympathy from anyonne the next time PKK smacks the living sh1t outta your soldiers or your people. "

Then you better won't whine when Turkey genocides the **** out of Kurds and Greeks again.



Victory Through Air Power

"Then you better won't whine when Turkey genocides the **** out of Kurds and Greeks again."

When did Turks genocided Kurds? Take again history 101 ASAP.

Subhuman, your "military" is good at genociding civilians that you pretend are Turkish civilians like "Kurds". However those flea bags criminals are no match for a conventional foe like Greece that is one of the most powerful armed forces in Europe. So I don't see them pulling a stunt against mainland Greeks anytime soon -- though I hope they do try a Balyoz stunt after nationalists like Golden Dawn gain more power and dismantle the Greek "Soviet state".

I have created many topics to educate ignorants like you about what those dirtbags in uniform are good for:
G&T Thread: TSK, a criminal organization calling itself an Armed Forces
G&T Thread: Greek TV expose on Turkish human trafficking to Greece and Europe
Waff Europe, Mideast Defence Forum: The Turkish military and state: the premiere narco-terrorists of Europe
History, Politics & Economics Forum: Possible Turkish Genocide of Kurds based on past threat and history?
World's Armed Forces Forum: Powerful military alliance between Turkey and Sudan: war criminal states
Europe, Mideast Defence Forum: Corrupt Turkish military and state facilitate human trafficking to Europe

PS:
According to Alevi leaders in Turkey, there are at least 20 million Alevis in Turkey. I wonder how they feel about their bandit state hosting criminal Sunni jihadis and overthrowing the Alawi(Alevi) regime of Assad? Probably they are having lots of arsefear and know that Sunni fanatics of Turkey will feel more confidence to act against them through similar tactics of intimidation and murder.

Sig:
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Why is vaseline in my sig? Because Turks don't want to read what I post. Hopefully the lube makes it easier for those criminal scum who are such great cry-babies to swallow.

Nikita you jewish scum, have you even finished college ? Talking all that crap about Turkey, what do you really know ? I post BS from bias blogs and news agencies, and claim its "educational". You are a ignorant racist faggot, who just waste our planets precious air, like 98% of all your kin. Fu
Homosexuality runs in DNA, greeks must be very proud