Was it all fabricated? The still unexplained attacks in Damascus on Tuesday night were a fabrication of Syria's Ba'ath Party hoping for carte blanche for a crackdown on the regime's opponents, claimed the dissident Reform Party of Syria (RPS) Wednesday.
Syria blamed al-Qaida for the attacks which according to reports left a police officer and at least two terrorists dead in the Mazza district of the capital, home to several embassies and international organizations.
RPS noted that the attack had little of the telltale markers of an al-Qaida strike, usually a well-coordinated, high-potential attack using a combination of suicide bombers and gunmen. Al-Qaida's predilection for larger attacks, and its use of Syria as a base for operations, casts doubt that the Wahabi group was involved, said RPS.
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"Anyway, why would al-Qaida, which uses Syria as a conduit to send Mujahideen to Iraq, risk its standing with such an attack?" he added.
An Israeli intelligence source said the nature of the attack and the assailants remains unclear, although Syria, a totalitarian police state, has in the past covered up terrorist attacks. Staging them, he said, is not so different, perhaps even easier.
The purpose of such a fabrication, claims RPS, is that it could offset mounting pressure on the regime to fight terror. It also gives Bashar Assad a free hand to wipe out his opponents while showing that "his ruthless and autocratic regime serves to protect Western interests," said the RPS statement.
Syria blamed al-Qaida for the attacks which according to reports left a police officer and at least two terrorists dead in the Mazza district of the capital, home to several embassies and international organizations.
RPS noted that the attack had little of the telltale markers of an al-Qaida strike, usually a well-coordinated, high-potential attack using a combination of suicide bombers and gunmen. Al-Qaida's predilection for larger attacks, and its use of Syria as a base for operations, casts doubt that the Wahabi group was involved, said RPS.
...
"Anyway, why would al-Qaida, which uses Syria as a conduit to send Mujahideen to Iraq, risk its standing with such an attack?" he added.
An Israeli intelligence source said the nature of the attack and the assailants remains unclear, although Syria, a totalitarian police state, has in the past covered up terrorist attacks. Staging them, he said, is not so different, perhaps even easier.
The purpose of such a fabrication, claims RPS, is that it could offset mounting pressure on the regime to fight terror. It also gives Bashar Assad a free hand to wipe out his opponents while showing that "his ruthless and autocratic regime serves to protect Western interests," said the RPS statement.
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