Nearly 50 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a series of bombings that rocked Damascus, Tartous Homs, and Hasaka on Monday. Although ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks, the Syrian opposition accused the Assad regime of orchestrating the attacks to present itself as the best alternative to terrorist groups.
Member of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Okab Yahya said that the Assad regime has a proven history of planning such bombings targeting mainly civilians. Yahya cited the arrest of Michel Samaha, Lebanon’s former minister of information, who admitted he had smuggled explosives from Syria into Lebanon to carry out bombings at the orders of the Assad regime.
The Assad regime seeks to portray itself as a victim of ISIS’s terror attacks ahead of the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting due to be held on September 21st and which will dedicate a whole session to discuss the situation in Syria, Yahya said.
On Friday, Lebanon indicted two Assad regime intelligence officers in connection with twin bombings at mosques in Tripoli in 2013, Lebanese state media said.
The two blasts, at the Taqwa and al-Salam mosques in the northern Lebanese city, took place within minutes of each other in August 2013 and killed more than 40 people and injured hundreds.
A Lebanese military court accused Assad regime intelligence officers Muhammad Ali Ali, of the “Palestine Branch”, and Nasser Jubaan, of the “Political Security Directorate,” of planning and overseeing the attacks, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The court ruling said that investigators were still trying to find out the names of the officials responsible for ordering the attacks. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
