Survivor of Attack on US Embassy Dies in Syria

[WhiteTara]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/world/middleeast/14syriacnd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

DAMASCUS, Sept. 13 — The sole survivor of the four-man team that attacked the American embassy here Tuesday died of his wounds without being questioned, Syria’s official news agency reported.

The assailant’s death left Syrian authorities with only the physical evidence to piece together the origins and motivations of the attack. The country said all four men were Syrian citizens. It gave no other details and both the Syrian government and the United States embassy here declined to comment on the investigation.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, in which the four men apparently planned to strike both the front and the rear of the embassy compound simultaneously. As three of the men stormed an employee entrance at the rear of the compound, the fourth left a pickup truck laden with improvised explosives at the embassy’s front gate. He was wounded while running to the aid of the other attackers, and the explosives in the truck failed to detonate. One Syrian security official died and 13 people were injured in the ensuing gun battle.
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A political analyst in Damascus said today that Washington’s past efforts to isolate Syria diplomatically had only hardened the country’s resolve. “As long as the Syrian regime feels that its head is on the block, it will play the nasty guy,” said the analyst, who asked not to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the subject in the country.

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Meanwhile, the United States embassy remained closed today, an embassy spokesman said. He said it would reopen with all normal services on Thursday. Washington withdrew its ambassador to Syria in early 2005 after the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. The United States believes Syria was behind the killing, and preliminary results of a United Nations investigation have suggested as much.