Israel Matzav

(With video) Syrian Defense and Interior Ministers, Army Deputy Chief of Staff, killed in Damascus suicide bombing

Syria's Defense and Interior Ministers and its army's Deputy Chief of Staff have been killed in a suicide bombing in Damascus.

Syrian state television said a "terrorist explosion" which struck a national security building in Damascus killed the country's defense minister and critically injured its interior minister on Wednesday.

Israel Radio reported at 2:00 that the interior minister is also dead.

Activists at the scene said that Republican Guard troops sealed off Damascus's Shami Hospital after ambulances arrived with casualties from the explosion.

A report from Lebanese-based news channel Al-Mayadeen said that several senior security officials were killed in the explosion.

The bombing followed a night in which there was heavier fighting in Damascus than there has been at any other time. Read the whole thing.

The army deputy chief of staff was Assad's brother-in-law..

Assef Shawkat, brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, was killed in a bomb attack which targeted a meeting of Assad's top security and military officials on Wednesday, Hezbollah's al-Manar television and a security source in Syria said.

The security source told Reuters Shawkat died in a Damascus hospital where he was taken after the attack. State television earlier said Defence Minister Daoud Rajha was also killed in the bombing.

Israel Radio identified Shawkat as Assad's brother-in-law.

The suicide bomber was a bodyguard for Assad's inner circle.

Here's some video of the overnight fighting. Here's the BBC's report. Let's go to the videotape.



Here's a report from Russia's RT. Let's go to the videotape.



UPDATE 2:36 PM

Here's a new report from CNN, which was playing when word of the suicide bombing came through.

Let's go to the videotape.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Damascus, suicide bombing, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:35 PM