Syria: Fatah al-Islam Admits Bombing in Damascus

Source: Presstv.ir, 7-11-2008
Fatah al-Islam group admits being involved in a suicide bomb attack that killed 17 people in the Syrian capital two months ago.
On Thursday, Syrian state television showed 12 members of the group confessing that they had helped plan the Sept. 27 suicide car bomb attack which occurred near a Shia shrine in the Syrian capital and killed 17 civilians, Reuters reported Friday.
Abdel Baqi Hussein, a Syrian national who was identified as the head of security of the group said "The objective was to rattle the Syrian regime."
The man said the suicide bomber was a Saudi national called Abu Aisha.
"Abu Aysha was smuggled into Syria," Hussein said adding that "It was him who drove the car packed with explosives and blew himself up in a street in southern Damascus."
According to him the explosives used in the bombing had also been smuggled from Lebanon.
He said they had also planned to attack Syrian security posts, British and Italian diplomats and the country's central bank.
Among the people shown in the program was a Yemeni national along with a woman who identified as the daughter of Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker al-Abssi.
Hussein also said they had carried out a series of armed robberies to finance the September attack. They also said the car used in the bombing had been stolen from an Iraqi-registered taxi.
Fatah al-Islam, which first emerged in November 2006 in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, fought the Lebanese army for 15 weeks at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern country last year. 400 people, including 168 soldiers were killed during the battle.
Lat month, Lebanon accused 34 men from the group of masterminding deadly attacks on the army in the Lebanese northern city of Tripoli in August and September. Twenty-six of those charged are already in custody, with arrest warrants having been issued for the others.