Twin attacks in Syria kill 32
Al-Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for blasts
BEIRUT: Twin attacks on two Syrian security offices in the central city of Homs killed at least 32 people, including a senior security official who heads the feared Military Intelligence services, state media and officials reported.
An al-Qaeda-linked insurgent coalition known as the Levant Liberation Committee claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also left another high-ranking officer seriously wounded.
In a statement on their Telegram channel, the group said five attackers stormed the two different security offices. The group said bombs were also detonated at checkpoints outside the buildings just as rescuers were arriving, leading to more casualties.
The governor of Homs Province, Talal Barzani, said there were three blasts in total, killing more than 32 people. He said the attackers were wearing suicide belts, which they detonated in the security offices. The two agencies are 2km apart.
Syrian State News Agency SANA said Maj Gen Hassan Daeboul, head of the local Military Intelligence branch, was killed by one of the
suicide bombers.
According to state TV and state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV, Brigadier Ibrahim Darwish, head of the State Security Branch, was also critically wounded in the attacks.
According to Ikhbariya, at least six assailants attacked the two secu-
rity compounds in Homs’ al-Ghouta and al-Mahata neighborhoods, clashing with security officers before at least two of them detonated explosive vests, killing 32 people. It was not clear if there are any civilians among the casualties.
The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 42 security officers were killed in the attacks on the offices of the State Security and the Military Intelligence services.
The differing casualty estimates could not be immediately reconciled. Such discrepancies are not uncommon in the immediate aftermath of violence in Syria.
Homs is Syria’s third-largest city and largely in the control of the government.
The attacks are among the most spectacular perpetrated against security agencies in the six-year old conflict – a coordinated operation against two heavily secured government buildings using a combination of armed assault and suicide bombing.
In early days of the conflict, bombings targeting state security institutions were frequent, usually against military intelligence branches in Damascus and other cities. — AP