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Syrian rebels say they planted bombs inside meeting room; 3 top aides to Assad killed

By Babak Dehghanpisheh, Debbi Wilgoren and Liz Sly, Updated: Wednesday, July 18, 9:16 AM

BEIRUT —A bombing in Damascus on Wednesday killed at least three key members of President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle, a devastating strike that came hours before a U.N. Security Council debate on the Syria conflict and added to mounting evidence that Assad’s security forces may be losing control of the capital.

The rebel Free Syrian Army said its loyalists planted bombs inside a room where the government’s central command unit for crisis management — a special cell comprised of about a dozen of the country’s top security chiefs — was to meet to discuss efforts to crush the 16-month-old uprising.

The bombs were detonated remotely from outside the building once the meeting was underway, said Col. Malik Kurdi, the rebel group’s deputy commander. “The Free Syrian Army carried out this attack in retaliation for the massacres committed by the regime and because of the international silence,” Kurdi said. “We promised that we are going to hit the regime in its most sensitive axis. This was necessary for us.”

Killed were Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, who also held the title of deputy prime minister; his deputy, Asef Shawkat, a former chief of military intelligence who was married to Assad’s sister; and Hassan Turkmani, the head of the security cell and a former minister of defense.

The government said others at the meeting were injured. Despite reports on some news outlets that Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar was badly hurt and eventually died from his wounds, state television said he was in stable condition.

That the bomber was able to penetrate so deeply into the heart of the establishment could have a powerful effect on morale, not only within Assad’s cabinet but also across the ranks of the military and regime supporters who have thus far remained loyal.

Within hours, reports began flooding in of fresh defections from security services around the country. Though none could be immediately confirmed, the rumors demonstrated the potential for the attack to rapidly accelerate the disintegration of the government.

There were numerous reports that many army soldiers had defected in the northern province of Idlib and in parts of the flashpoint city of Homs.

According to a Homs activist who calls himself Abu Emad, more than 250 soldiers were seen abandoning their posts in the historic Old City neighborhood, long a battleground between rebels and the regime. Armored vehicles were pulling out of the area and more than 250 soldiers had fled, he said, some of them joining the rebels and others simply leaving the area.

At the same time, loyalists still in position around the edge of the city were shelling the area with renewed intensity, he said.

In Damascus, concerns mounted that regime loyalists would lash out against opposition strongholds with revenge attacks. Tareq Saleh, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Leadership Council in Damascus, said he had received reports that the pro-regime militiamen known as shabiha were fanning out in southern neighborhoods where clashes have been taking place in the past few days, amid fears that they were preparing to take revenge.

Elsewhere, the streets were calm but tense, with most shops closed and few people venturing out. “There is so much fear among the people,” Saleh said. “We are expecting massacres.”

“If you think of a string of pearls, this may be the decisive moment where the string has been cut and we just see the pearls start falling off,” said Amr al-Azm, a professor of history at Ohio’s Shawnee State University who is also active in the Syrian opposition.

A look at the Syrian uprising one year later. Thousands of Syrians have died and President Bashar al-Assad remains in power, despite numerous calls by the international community for him to step down.

“Right now we are on the cusp. The regime might be able to contain it, or things might unravel completely. The next few hours are going to be critical.”

The Syrian government, in a statement, called the bombing inside the National Security headquarters a “cowardly act” and vowed to “decisively” eliminate opposition forces, “chasing them out of their rotten hideouts wherever they are until clearing the homeland of their evils.”

“If the people think they can force Syria in a certain direction by killing these people, they are delusional,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement that was read on state-controlled television.

A separate claim of responsibility for the bombing came from a little-known group calling itself the Brigade of Islam, which implied that the strike was a suicide attack. It was not immediately possible to verify the claim.

“An improvised explosive device, done by the battalion of the martyrs, which is part of the Brigade of Islam, was used to bomb the building,” the group said in a Facebook posting. “The explosion took place at the time of a meeting of the top criminals and the demon gang which resulted in the death of several people from the pillars of the regime.”

The death of Shawkat, who was married to Assad’s elder sister Bushra, was especially significant because of Shawkat’s standing both as a member of the Assad family and as a key figure in the effort to crush the uprising, Azm added.

“Asef Shawkat was not only a very close member of the Assad family but also a forceful and powerful member of the inner decision-making circle,” Azm said. “He was well known for being brutal, effective and decisive, and he was at the forefront of the fight against the uprising.”

On Tuesday, Syrian opposition groups said their fighters were converging on Damascus. Despite the overwhelming firepower of government troops, rebel forces appeared to hold their ground in several neighborhoods where the fighting was heaviest, according to members of the opposition.

“Our strategy is to bleed down the regime forces and take over government buildings and key places in the capital,” Kurdi said. He denied that the opposition had been sent any heavy weapons.

The intense fighting in the capital marked the first time that many Damascus residents had seen overt signs of the bloody uprising against Assad that has left at least 14,000 Syrians dead.

“It’s obvious that what’s happening in Syria represents a real escalation in the fighting,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday, at a previously scheduled Pentagon news briefing with British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond. “This is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control.”

Both Panetta and Hammond said the violence underscores the need for Assad to peacefully cede power, under a transition plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan. In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the bombing and called on all members of the U.N. Security Council, including Syrian allies Russia and China, to pressure Assad to accept the Annan plan.

“What we’re seeing is an opposition which is emboldened,” Hammond said. “It’s important that both sides understand that the international community is eager to see an orderly transition of power,”

But Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed such demands, saying they were “rooted in hopelessness.”

“Assad will not go on his own,” Lavrov said, in remarks reported by the Interfax news agency. “Our Western partners, in my opinion, just do not know what to do next. Hence their emotional rhetoric: “If only Russia will stop supporting him!’”

In a message posted on Twitter, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov condemned Wednesday’s bombing and said it would undermine the security council discussion planned for Wednesday afternoon. “A dangerous trend: while the UN SC is discussing the settlement of the Syrian crisis, militants are intensifying terror attacks, disrupting all attempts.”

In a separate statement Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said: “Moscow strongly condemns all forms and manifestations of terrorism. We hope the masterminds of the terrorist attack in Damascus will be found and brought to justice.”

Russia argues that Annan has considerable support within some sectors of the Syrian population, and that it is up to Syria to decide its own fate. Russian officials have maintained that their country is not supporting Assad, but is opposed to his being forced from office by international pressure.

The tough Western-backed resolution under consideration Wednesday is in “direct support” of the rebels, and amounts to interference in Syria’s internal affairs, Lavrov said, according to the RIA Novosti agency.

Lavrov met with Annan in Moscow Monday and Tuesday, and Annan also met with President Vladimir Putin. Lavrov said he urged Annan to convene another round of talks on Syria, as a follow-up to last month’s session in Geneva, but this time including Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Lavrov had said Monday, before his meeting with Annan, that he thinks the Western powers are trying to “blackmail” Russia into agreeing to a resolution.

Hours after Wednesday’s bombing, the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group, reported heavy clashes between the military and rebel forces in the Qaboun neighborhood of the capital. They said helicopters were being used in the attack. Shelling was also reported in Midan.

The bombing, which sent a huge plume of smoke over the Damascus skyline, was planned over the last two months, Kurdi said. He said the rebels had had information about the regular meetings of the crisis group and were monitoring the movements of the senior officials taking part in the meetings. Kurdi also said there was an earlier plan to poison the food served at these meetings, but that plan fell through in May.

Assad appointed Fahd Jassem al-Freij, deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, as his new minister of defense, the government said in a statement.

The government said Rajha was born in Damascus in 1947, and graduated from the Military Academy in 1968. His long military career included stints as deputy chief of general staff and chief of general staff. He left a wife and four children.

In Washington, White House officials insisted Wednesday that the bombing showed Assad’s hold on power weakening and that the rebel forces were making strides militarily. They reiterated the administration’s position that Assad must relinquish power and rejected the notion that Obama would face increased international pressure to take bolder action.

“It’s clear that the Assad regime is losing control of Syria,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said. “There is real momentum against Assad, with increasing defections, and a strengthened and more united opposition that is operating across the country.”

He added: “Many formerly pro-regime Syrians view Assad as the problem, not the solution, and the regime’s financial struggle continues. With the Assad regime losing control, it’s time for the Syrian people and the international community to focus on what comes next. We are working urgently with our international partners to push for a political transition in Syria.... The sooner this transition happens, the greater the chance we have of averting a lengthy and bloody sectarian civil war and the better we’ll be able to help Syrians manage a stable transition to democracy.”

The United States and its allies have pressed China and Russia to support tougher United Nations sanctions on the Assad regime. The Obama administration has provided nonlethal communications and medical aid to the rebels but has stopped short of offering direct military support or weapons.

A White House official would not say whether Obama has spoken to any international leaders since the news of the bombing broke Wednesday morning in Washington.

“Assad needs to stop targeting his own people and killing civilians and step down,” the official said. “The Russians need to press him, and the Chinese need to press him. We are not pretending this will be clean or easy, but you see in places like Yemen after a period of time there is a negotiated transition that leads to a far better outcome.”

The Obama administration on Wednesday imposed financial sanctions against 29 senior officials in Assad’s government, as well as companies tied to the Syrian agency “responsible for developing and producing non-conventional weapons and the missiles to deliver them,” according to the Treasury Department. Since the start of the uprising in Syria, the administration has now sanctioned more than 100 other individuals and entities in the country.

The measures freeze any assets the individuals or entities may hold in the United States and prohibit U.S. companies from working with them.

“Today’s actions reflect the unwavering commitment of the United States to pressure the Assad regime to end the carnage and relinquish power,” David S. Cohen, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. “As long as Assad stays in power, the bloodshed and instability in Syria will only mount, and we will continue working with our partners in the international community to ensure that the inevitable political transition occurs as rapidly as possible.”

Sly reported from Antakya, Turkey. Will Englund in Moscow, Joby Warrick and David Nakamura in Washignton and Suzan Haidamous and a special correspondent in Beirut contributed to this report.