Our Embassy in Syria is apparently underfire

[*~*stragi*~*]

Just popped up on CNN... details to follow.

[*~*stragi*~*]

Not a lot of details I guess.

DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) -- Gunfire was heard near the U.S. Embassy in central Damascus on Tuesday as witnesses reported seeing black smoke rising from the area.

"The situation is quite confused," said Peter Ford, the British ambassador to Syria.

"There was firing in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy. I was speaking to someone just outside that building and I could hear gunshots in the background."

Witnesses also reported hearing explosions, according to Ford, who said he believed the U.S. Embassy was the object of whatever action was taken.

"We are very unclear about who is attacking or who has attacked."

[Keverian FireCry]

are you syrial?!?

[Animalor]

As long as they don't try this on your embassy in Canada I'll be happy =)

My office building is like 40 yards away and I have a corner office in the basement(where else do companies like to stick IT) with the windows facing the embassy.

[Al]

Probably a wedding or something...

[Waran]

Looks like a foiled attack:


DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) -- Syrian security forces killed four attackers Tuesday outside the U.S. Embassy in Damascus after a car exploded near the walls of the American compound, the Syrian Information Ministry said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but an al Qaeda offshoot group called Jund al-Sham -- or Soldiers of Levant -- is suspected, said Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States.

One Syrian security guard protecting the embassy was killed in the attack, Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported.

Syrian authorities wounded and arrested another suspected attacker, the ministry said.

In addition to the attacker, 13 others were wounded, including an embassy policeman, security worker and 11 civilians, among them two Iraqis and a Chinese, according to SANA.

The Syrian Information Ministry said none of the embassy staff was wounded and the building was not damaged.

While on a trip to Canada, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice extended condolences over the death of the Syrian security guard.

"I do think that the Syrians reacted to this attack in a way that helped to secure our people, and we very much appreciate that," said Rice, speaking in Stellarton, Nova Scotia.

"It's too early to tell who might have been responsible for the attack. Obviously, we will do the forensics on it and try to get a sense of what happened there."

Video footage from the scene showed the burned-out wreckage of a car and blood-soaked streets near the embassy, which in a residential area of the Syrian capital.

The armed attackers apparently tried to storm the embassy with hand grenades and machine guns after detonating a car bomb near the compound walls, according to the ministry and the state-run news agency.

Syrian authorities found and dismantled another car rigged with explosives, including some bombs made with propane gas tanks, according to SANA and video from the scene.

The radical fundamentalist group Soldiers of Levant has been blamed for several attacks in Syria in recent years, Moustapha said.

Levant, a term used during and after World War I, refers to the region that includes modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

About 30 Syrian guards usually are posted around the embassy 24 hours a day, Moustapha said.

Up to 40 U.S. diplomats are posted at the embassy, which is "average" in size, according to deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

Casey cited "ongoing concern" about a possible attack in Syria and among U.S. embassies in the Middle East because of deteriorating relations.

The United States pulled its ambassador to Syria following the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an attack partly blamed on the Damascus government.

The embassy will remain closed Wednesday, except for essential staff, State Department officials said.

[Winnow]

As long as they don't try this on your embassy in Canada I'll be happy =)

My office building is like 40 yards away and I have a corner office in the basement(where else do companies like to stick IT) with the windows facing the embassy.

Ouch. Better hope Canadian security has ramped up since 911. It seems terrorists like to hit any U.S. embassy they can manage to get to. I'd say the U.S. embassy in Canada would be a prime target.

[miir]

Ouch. Better hope Canadian security has ramped up since 911. It seems terrorists like to hit any U.S. embassy they can manage to get to. I'd say the U.S. embassy in Canada would be a prime target.

You're a fucking retard.

[Winnow]

Ouch. Better hope Canadian security has ramped up since 911. It seems terrorists like to hit any U.S. embassy they can manage to get to. I'd say the U.S. embassy in Canada would be a prime target.

You're a fucking retard.

That must make you a vegitable on a relative basis. At least I can fuck!

[miir]

Ouch. Better hope Canadian security has ramped up since 911. It seems terrorists like to hit any U.S. embassy they can manage to get to. I'd say the U.S. embassy in Canada would be a prime target.

You're a fucking retard.

That must make you a vegitable on a relative basis. At least I can fuck!

Exactly why would the US embassy in any Canadian city be a prime target?

[Moonwynd]

Ouch. Better hope Canadian security has ramped up since 911. It seems terrorists like to hit any U.S. embassy they can manage to get to. I'd say the U.S. embassy in Canada would be a prime target.

You're a fucking retard.

That must make you a vegitable on a relative basis. At least I can fuck!

Ahem...*vegetable*. At least I can spell! Too bad I can't fuck

[Cartalas]

Tip of the hat to Syria

[Winnow]

Ouch. Better hope Canadian security has ramped up since 911. It seems terrorists like to hit any U.S. embassy they can manage to get to. I'd say the U.S. embassy in Canada would be a prime target.

You're a fucking retard.

That must make you a vegitable on a relative basis. At least I can fuck!

Exactly why would the US embassy in any Canadian city be a prime target?

Pipe down there Moonwynd! : )

Oh, I don't know...I hear there's Canadians killing people over in Afghanistan for one thing...you might want to read up on that. As Canadians love to say, their peace loving country isn't a target for terrorism but anything flying a U.S. flag sure is. I don't see why it's so shocking to you that U.S. targets in Canada would be desirable.

[Nick]

[Kylere]

No smart terrorist would attack a US Embassy on Canadian soil. Anyone with a hint of knowledge geopolitically would realize that doing so would strengthen the relationsip between the US and Canada rather than weaken it. Not to mention which if you commit enough of an atrocity in Canada you might actually change public opinion there. They have the same percentage of rednecks(blackwhiterichpooroldyoungmalefemaleleftwingrightwingconservativeliberal) as every other western nation, so why stir them up? Any serious attack on US interests in a Western Nation would weaken the current antiAmerican hatreds so popular amongst the pseudointellectuals who dominate western media, and increase the likelyhood of further middle east intervention by former NATO states (I say former because let's face it, NATO is dead)

The best bet would be to lie low and let the US own the headlines in a negative way until the US populace force a change in administration or until the other nations in the first world step far enough away from American interest that you can begin to gain them as allies.

But you want to have two people running into your cave screaming "I AM GONNA KILL YOU YOU FUCKING RAGHEAD", and one adding an EH! to the end? Go ahead and kill 190 people in a Canadian city because you do not like the US, there would be fucking Captain America joins the RCMP stories in the comics.

Besides which, a major terrorist attack (in North America) between now and next November would HELP the Bushies, and the only real advantage would be a further erosion of freedoms in the United States.

[Winnow]

The best bet would be to lie low and let the US own the headlines in a negative way until the US populace force a change in administration or until the other nations in the first world step far enough away from American interest that you can begin to gain them as allies.

But you want to have two people running into your cave screaming "I AM GONNA KILL YOU YOU FUCKING RAGHEAD", and one adding an EH! to the end? Go ahead and kill 190 people in a Canadian city because you do not like the US, there would be fucking Captain America joins the RCMP stories in the comics.

Canadians are already involved and actively participating in the Middle East. There's nothing to "stir up". If you need links to Canada's current military involvment in Afghanistan, I'll provide them but just google news "canadian" and you'll find plenty.

[Al]

I have to side with Winnow on this. Just recently an alledged plot was broken up in the Toronto area. I don't recall the details, but the people Canadian officials arrested weren't after US interests in Canada. Do not believe that a peace loving country is safe from nutcases. Not to mention the fact that Canada is involved in combat activities in support of several US led missions. I would imagine Canada would be a larger target than Spain.

Edit: And NATO is not dead. They are the last of the international military alliances with enough backbone to back up threats of violence with violence. The UN was in the Balkans for 5 years and nothing got accomplished except genocide. NATO was there for barely a year on the ground. When they left the problem was solved and millions of ethnic Albanians were going home without fear of being murdered by their own government. The UN has sapped much of NATO's political power, but the UN is a bureaucracy. NATO is a military alliance. No political function can ever take the place of a large pile of guns and the willingness to use them.

[Kylere]

Winnow there is a difference between having troops deployed and the drooling slavering rants of a pissed off country screaming the the streets.

Yeah NATO is dead, I was deployed initially to Brindisi in 95 when we started bringing it back from mothballs for SOCEUR ops, and the only thing that stopped Mountain Shield from being immediately effective was slow NATO response (The Brits kicked ass BTW). The reason that NATO is dead is political though, the thing that forged NATO, and kept it from fighting so much internally was the presense of an exterior threat, which then dissolved. Mostly BECAUSE of NATO cheer!, but now the alliance is breaking up.

Europe stands to lose the most from the gradual dissolution of NATO, since its inception, Europe has had one of the longest periods of internal peace in recorded history.

[Nick]

Um...the main body of Europe and it's surrounding allies, chiefly the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Luxembourg, Latvia and Lithuania aren't going to suffer for shit.

The danger posed by the alleged "threat" to the peace of Europe by Europe herself is fucking non existant. Maybe peripheral wannabe Euro countries like Bosnia, Turkey, Serbia etc have a danger of slipping into war, but that's nothing new in the slightest - and nothing to do with Nato.

Your interpretation of NATO's so called collapse is totally fucking invalid, laughably so, especially in regards to the security of Europe.

It's the biggest peacekeeping force on the planet, by a fucking country mile, and remains so to this very minute.

There isn't going to be a dissolution of NATO in the next 20 years (without some massive blowout - not likely given the support it still has worldwide), and even if there was, it would have (at this point in time) fuck all effect on mainland Europe.

Edit: Just because the USA creates a Unilateral course of preventative action which just so happens to actually perpetuate the problem it wishes to solve doesn't mean the rest of the world becomes automatically retarded.

[Kylere]

Nick if you think for even a minute that a modern day war between Germany and France could not occur, then you are not paying to close of attention to history 101.

Whenever the external threat dissolves, countries look internally for strife more, and they look at their immediate neighbors and old problems rekindle. Bosnia was a perfect example of this happening. The Russians are having fun from the same effect both from former Republics but internally. Look at the so called "student riots" in France. Humans just suck, and the average joe in the street is a drooling fucking moron who wants to oppress something to make himself feel better, give them half a chance and they will take the easiest route. Hell I figured out that long before the twilight zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street But that should be enough to convey the basic failing of humanity to you.

Look at the US for the love of someones god. We had nothing to fear from the Russians really, so we came up with McCarthism to plug the gap until the Russians closed it. Then we were in fear of them for effectively 32-33 years now that they are done, we are getting all churchy and divided. 9/11 would have changed that a bit except the current administration is sadly incompetent. But once we leave Iraq, watch out. Read the sites you claim to be on the side of, did you know that KKK membership is up? Yeah fun, and Mel Gibson just encourages this bullshit. The Middle Class is getting disturbed and the last time that really happened was the mid to late 60's, and look at the racial, drug, generational, etc problems the US had then. The Summer of Love had more hate than most but better PR.

Do not think Europe is above the US in being petty and childish, because history shows you to be wrong. Honestly there are several people that post here that I would rather have ruling the US by fiat because we would be better off, even if I do not agree with all their politics because at this point they would at least be rational. I would feel better if you were leading several countries in Europe and I actively think you are foolish. But not as foolish as the leadership of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal etc.

NATO is dead, the corpse is kicking but it will be gone within my lifetime, or the US will not be a member, and it will be a Europe only group. Which at the point would reflect the political realities. But keep kidding yourself if you think there is no way you could see a way between first world nations, and the odds are at this point it will be resource related.

[Nick]

That's a lovely lyrical post about how the summer of love was pr and mel gibson likes the kkk but it doesn't change the fact the main countries in Europe have a fine relationship with eachother - Nato or otherwise.

Come over and check it out if you don't believe me.

[Kylere]

I lived in Europe from 88-96. I watched drunken germans beat the fuck out of turks just for being turks, and I watched a german guy get his cheekbone, nose, and jaw broken by a guy from the netherlands over a soccer game.

You can keep fooling yourself. Those old hatreds pop back up as soon as possible.