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On 6 January 2012, a bomb exploded in the
Al-Midan Al-Midan ( ar, حي الميدان) is a neighbourhood and municipality in Damascus, Syria, south of the old walled city and near the modern city centre. In the 2004 census, it had a population of 177,456. Today, the neighbourhood is often co ...
district of
Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...
,
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. According to the Syrian government, a
suicide bomb A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
er attacked buses carrying riot police shortly before an anti-government protest was to begin. It said that 26 people were killed and over 60 were injured. Most of the victims were civilians, though the Syrian government showed footage of what it claimed to be the funeral of 11 police officers killed in the attack. It was the second such bombing since an uprising against the government began in early 2011. Two weeks earlier, a double car bombing in Damascus had killed 44 people. The government blamed that attack and the 6 January attack on
al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...
. However, the
Syrian opposition The Syrian opposition ( ar, المعارضة السورية ', ) is the political structure represented by the Syrian National Coalition and associated Syrian anti-Assad groups with certain territorial control as an alternative Syrian govern ...
accused the government of staging the attacks to justify its crackdown on the uprising. Later, the newly formed Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant claimed responsibility in a video.


Background

The attack occurred as
Arab League The Arab League ( ar, الجامعة العربية, ' ), formally the League of Arab States ( ar, جامعة الدول العربية, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world, which is located in Northern Africa, Western Africa, E ...
monitors were in the country to see if Syria was abiding by Arab League demands that were said to have sought an end to the violence. Two weeks earlier, a double car bombing in Damascus had killed 44 people. The government blamed that attack on Islamist militants.


Bombing

Most of the initial information about the attack comes from the Syrian government and
state media State media or government media are Media (communication), media outlets that are under financial and/or editorial control of the State (polity), state or government, directly or indirectly. There are different types of state and government media ...
. It reported that, at about 10:55,"Terrorist Bombing in al-Midan Neighborhood in Damascus Causes Tens of Deaths and Injuries, Most Are Civilians"
.
Syrian Arab News Agency The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) ( ar, الوكالة العربية السورية للأنباء (سانا), ) is a Syrian state-controlled news agency, linked to the country's ministry of information. It was established in June 1965. We ...
. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt beside three buses carrying
riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police who act in the role of riot police in particular situations or they may be separate units organized ...
."Syria blames al-Qaida for Damascus bomb"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
"Syrian bomb attacks cause people to rally around Bashar al-Assad's regime"
The Guardian. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
A police officer said that he had seen a man carrying a black bag walk toward a bus and then detonate the explosives."Syria unrest: Damascus blast and clashes kill many"
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...
. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
The buses were parked outside a police station that was near a primary school and a mosque. The bomb detonated at a traffic light under a concrete flyover, shattering windows and destroying several police cars. According to Syrian state media, it was estimated that the bomb was 10 kilograms of high explosive. Syrian state news agency ''
SANA Sana may refer to: Places * Sanaa, the capital of Yemen * Sana (river), a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina * Sana, Bhutan, a town in Bhutan * Sana, Haute-Garonne, a commune in France * Sana, Iran, a village in Iran * Sana, Mali, a commune in M ...
'' reported that 26 were killed (including 15 who could not be identified) and 63 were hurt."Bomb Kills Dozens in Damascus, Stoking Suspicions"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
It also said that most of the victims were civilians but that there were security personnel among the dead. Remains, allegedly those of the bomber, were left at the scene for several hours before being taken away for DNA tests. These and other body parts were repeatedly displayed for journalists who were driven to the scene by the Ministry of Information. State-owned television showed a damaged bus with blood and police helmets on the seats. Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar said that the bomber "detonated himself with the aim of killing the largest number of people."


Aftermath

Hundreds of government loyalists later arrived at the scene, some of whom were waving flags and chanting in support of
Syrian president The president of Syria, officially the president of the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: رئيس سوريا) is the head of state of the Syrian Arab Republic. They are vested with sweeping powers that may be delegated, at their sole discretion, to ...
Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
. According to ''The New York Times'', people living in the neighborhood reported that about an hour after the bombing, security forces and armed loyalists went on "a rampage, shooting randomly and beating and arresting people in the streets". Despite the bombing, anti-government
protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
went ahead in Damascus and elsewhere. The anti-government Local Co-ordinating Committees said 14 protesters were killed in the suburbs of Damascus later that day. It also reported that nine protesters had been killed in Hama, eight were killed in
Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
, three were killed in
Idlib ar, إدلبي, Idlibi , coordinates = , elevation_m = 500 , area_code = 23 , geocode = C3871 , blank_name = Climate , blank_info ...
and one was killed in Deraa. ''SANA'' also reported that an oil pipeline between Hama and Idlib had been blown up by a "terrorist group."


Perpetrators

The Interior Minister described the ''
modus operandi A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of o ...
'' and "intention to cause mass casualties" as having the "fingerprints of
al-Qaida Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
." Syria's interior ministry said the government would "strike back with an iron fist" to what it called "terrorist escalation". Opposition groups accused the government of staging the attack to "sully the opposition’s image" and validate its own argument that it is "fighting blind violence rather than a pro-democracy movement.""Syrian capital rocked by deadly explosion"
France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a France, French State media, state-owned international News broadcasting, news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market. B ...
. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
The
Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the govern ...
(FSA), the main anti-government paramilitary group, denied involvement and condemned the attack. FSA spokesman Major Maher al-Naimi said: "This is planned and systematic
state terrorism State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism which a state conducts against another state or against its own citizens.Martin, 2006: p. 111. Definition There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the proper def ...
by the security forces of the President Bashar al-Assad". The
Syrian National Council The Syrian National Council (SNC; ar, المجلس الوطني السوري, ''al- Majlis al-Waṭanī as-Sūri'', french: Conseil national syrien), sometimes known as the Syrian National Transitional Council or the National Council of Syri ...
issued a statement reading: "Today's bombings, in the area that has experienced the largest of the anti-regime demonstrations, clearly bear the regime's fingerprints". The Syrian
Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
also blamed the government. On 7 January, opposition activists accused the government of making fake television footage of the aftermath. The activists pointed to three clips "mistakenly" aired by Syrian state TV. One shows what seems to be an injured man on the ground standing up just before the end of the clip. Another shows a man with a microphone (allegedly a reporter for Syrian state TV) placing "bags of vegetables" in the street to give the impression that some of the victims were civilians shopping in the nearby market. The third video shows a person putting police shields in one of the damaged vans. The same day as the bombing, Syrian opposition leader Ammar Qurabi claimed that the government was planning another bombing in
Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...
"to terrorize the people". He said he had learned of the plot from Syrian security officials."Syrian opposition figure says Assad’s regime plotting a massive blast in Aleppo"
.
Al Arabiya Arabiya ( ar, العربية, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is an international Arabic news television channel, currently based in Dubai, that is operated by the media conglomerate MBC. The channel is a fla ...
. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
At the end of February a group called the
al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...
claimed responsibility for the attack and placed a 45-minute video on the Internet showing its preparation."Unknown Islamist group claims suicide attacks in Syria"
, Al Arabiya News, 29 February 2012.


See also

* List of terrorist incidents in Syria


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2012 01 Al-Midan bombing Terrorist incidents in Damascus during the Syrian civil war Suicide bombings in Syria Terrorist incidents in Syria in 2012 Military operations of the Syrian civil war involving the al-Nusra Front January 2012 crimes January 2012 events in Syria Mass murder in 2012