A high-ranking Syrian military officer was killed in the car bomb explosion which struck Damascuson Saturday, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Sunday.
According to the al-Sharq al-Awsat report, the car bomb was meant to hit a Syrian intelligence services building, located near Damascus' international airport, where Syria's "Palestinian directorate" is believed to be located.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was quick to assign blame Saturday,saying Israel wasthe one which stood to gain the most from the attack.
"Unfortunately, in the years following the American war on terror, terror has managed to spread even further. Such incidents can take place anywhere and do not indicate that there was a security breach," he said.
The terror attack in Syria was condemned by the US, Europe and the Arab world.
Syria has known several assassinations and assassination attempts in the past few months, most recently that of Hisham el-Badni, secretary to Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' political leader, who according to reports was gunned down in a Damascus street, in broad daylight.
July saw another top Syrian official killed, as Brigadier General Mohammad Suleiman, a senior aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad ,who was gunned down by a sniper.