Bomb Blast Kills Syrian Security Chiefs

A bomb ripped apart the highest echelons of Syria’s security establishment Wednesday.

The blast went off during a top-level meeting at the National Security building in the capital, Damascus.

Syria’s state TV says the blast killed the defense minister, Daoud Rajiha, and his deputy Assef Shawkat, who was President Assad’s brother-in-law.

Syria’s intelligence chief and the nation’s Interior Minister were reportedly wounded.

The BBC’s Lina Sinjab is in Damascus and after the bombing, she went on a government-run press tour of the city. The tour ended at Seven Fountains Square, where Sinjab says the atmosphere was eerie. She talks to anchor Marco Werman to give more details.

Werman also talks to the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, who says there are many conflicting rumors and conspiracy theories about what happened.

“But if indeed it is a suicide bombing, carried out – as has been suggested – by one of the bodyguards of the people at this top-level national security meeting, then it’s a triple blow for Bashar’s regime,” Gardner said.

According to Frank Gardner, firstly, it’s a personal blow to his family. Second, it damages the regime’s command and control structure. Thirdly, it’s a blow that someone could penetrate to the heart of the regime and do this. It could cause many to look over their shoulders and ask if it’s time to jump ship.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman. This is “The World”. A bomb ripped apart the highest echelons of Syria’s security establishment today. The blast went off during a top-level meeting at National Security Headquarters in Damascus. State TV said the attacked killed three top member of President Assad’s inner circle. They are the Defense Minister, his deputy, who was also Assad’s brother-in-law, and the head of the President’s crisis team. Also, the Interior Minister and the Intelligence Chief were reportedly wounded. The BBC’s Lina Sinjab is in Damascus After the bombing, she went on a government-run press tour of the city. The tour ended at Seven Fountains Square, where Sinjab says the atmosphere was eerie.

Lina Sinjab: There was an intense sense of fear, hardly any movement. It took me around like twenty minutes to find a cab in a street that used to be bustling, and all the shops were closed there, except for a couple of shops. One of them is a bakery shop that I saw was open. So you really get the sense of tense and fear feeling in Damascus today.

Werman: Right. That sounds pervasive. But how much of Damascus is actually in turmoil or battle today?

Sinjab: Well, definitely in the areas we’ve visited, which is like the main quarter of the city center, there hasn’t been any battles, not something we have seen, but we definitely heard lots of gunfire. At some point the gunfire was so close to us that I felt that I had to drop my head down. I was worried that something will come over my head. And that was near the Syrian television centre, which is in Umayyad Square, so pretty much the central city.

Werman: Damascus has seen punctuated bursts of violence in recent months, but I’m just wondering what feels different now if right in the city?

Sinjab: Now, people in the center that have been away from the hot clashes for the last month are now in the heart of it. They can feel it. They can sense it. So that’s why the sense of fear has risen and the sense of concern over security has dramatically risen in the last two, three days.

Werman: The BBC’s Lina Sinjab speaking with us from Damascus. Frank Gardner is the BBC’s security correspondent and has just returned from the Middle East. He says there are many conflicting reports about what happened today.

Frank Gardner: If indeed it is a suicide bombing, carried out, as has been suggested, by one of the bodyguards of the people at this top-level national security meeting, then it’s a triple blow, I think, for Bashar’s regime. First, it’s a personal blow to his family. Assef Shawkat, the Deputy Defense Minister was the brother-in-law of the President. He was married to Bushra, the President’s sister, and therefore it’s a huge blow to the family. It’s a blow in terms of command and control. This was the family’s man in the Defense Ministry. He was Deputy Defense Minister, but he was really almost like a commissar, safeguarding the Assad’s interest in the entire military structure. So it’s hugely significant that he’s now out of the picture with all the accumulated years of command and control and experience and loyalties bought and built up over that time. Thirdly, it is a blow that somebody is able to get right inside the heart of the regime and do this. That’s quite a worry to them which will cause members of this regime to look over their shoulders and think, “Maybe it’s time to jump ship.”

Werman: Now, the bombing today, as we said, killed the Defense Minister, Daoud Rajiha, and he was immediately replaced by a new Defense Minister, General Fahad Jassim al-Freij. What do you know about him?

Gardner: Absolutely nothing. Have you heard of him? I haven’t.

Werman: No. What do you think that indicates thought? That this unheard-of person is now the new Defense Minister. Is it meaning that Assad’s bench isn’t that deep?

Gardner: What I mean by that rather sort of frivolous response is that whereas Assef Shawkat, the Deputy Defense Minister and brother-in-law of the President, is irreplaceable, the Defense Minister himself is replaceable. He’s not from Assad family himself. He’s not from the close [??]. So they’ve been very quickly able to replace him, but they will never be able to replace the loyalty and prestige and contacts and power that was built up by Assef Shawkat, who was in many ways much of the power behind this regime.

Werman: Speaking of loyalty or lack thereof, the Assad regime is also starting to suffer high-level defections, and earlier this week you spoke with the highest ranking defector so far, Nawaf Fares, who was Ambassador to Iraq from Syria. What did he tell you about the state of the Assad regime?

Gardner: Well, this is somebody who has been on the inside of the regime for thirty-four years, and for the last four years he has been in the very sensitive post of Syria’s first recent ambassador to Baghdad. And, interestingly, today, he’s had a lawsuit slung at him by the Iraqi government, claiming that he was responsible for sheltering militants who carried out bomb attacks in Iraq, which he denies. He was very unequivocal , saying the regime is finished, it’s the beginning of the end. He said that they will do anything to stay in power. He said the government of Bashar al-Assad will inevitably fall. People can never be conquered or defeated. It’s absolutely sure that this government will fall in a short time. Well, a lot of this is wishful thinking and a lot of these people, of course, are maneuvering themselves to have some kind of a role, and perhaps patronage, in a future post-Bashar Syria. So I think we have to have a degree of skepticism here when people say, “I’ve left the regime because I was appalled by the bloodshed.” It took them an awful long time to do it and many of those who have left or some of those who have left, defected, are standing accused of having blood on their own hands for the time they’ve spent inside this regime.

Werman: That was the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, in London.

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