US embassy escapes, but militancy on rise in Syria

DAMASCUS, Sep 14 (Reuters) The militants who attacked the US embassy in Syria this week botched the job, but more potent and experienced groups are at large in the country, officials and diplomats said today.

The results of an investigation into the attempt to blow up the US compound have not yet been released, but it does not seem to have been work of a sophisticated team.

''The attackers, luckily, were primitive and the security around the embassy quite good,'' one Syrian official said.

''There is huge popular anger of US policies and the government has taken a firm stand against them. Otherwise we would have been subject to more attacks.'' Syrian security forces killed the four men who attacked the embassy in the centre of Damascus on Tuesday morning. A Syrian guard was also killed and 13 people were wounded. No Americans were hurt.

The evening of the attack, traffic returned around the embassy and ordinary Syrians were eating corn and cactus fruit at stalls facing the compound.

The Syrian capital has not seen serious bombings for two decades when the secular government, led by the Baath party since 1963, crushed a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood.

HIZBOLLAH, HAMAS Washington regards Syria as a ''state sponsor of terrorism'' for its support of Hizbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian groups like Hamas.

Syria hosts exiled leaders of the groups but describes them as nationalists fighting Israeli occupation rather than bent on spreading a militant interpretation of Islam.

Official media said this week US support for Israel was behind the rise of terrorism in the region. An editorial in Tishreen newspaper said Washington had declined Syrian offers to cooperate in combating terrorism.

Syria says it is fighting terrorist threats. In June four young Syrian men were killed as they tried to storm Syrian Television headquarters. The government said the attempt was the work of a group of youths who had embraced a militant ideology similar to al Qaeda's.

''They were from a poor neighbourhood. They went around cutting electricity on houses with televisions, which they regarded as immoral, and looking for guidance on taking part in a holy war,'' one official said.

''They were so young that no one took them seriously.'' Diplomats said Syria had a strong security apparatus but could use more Western intelligence to combat Muslim groups with a regional reach more effectively.

Security forces have clashed with a group named Jund al-Sham several times in the last year, authorities say.

The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir last year published a document purportedly from Jund al-Sham calling on supporters to fight the ''disbelieving, idolatrous'' Syrian government.

''They have a real problem with al Qaeda-type groups. It is an area where the West and Syria can cooperate,'' one diplomat said.

In a recent raid against militants near Damascus the authorities seized what one official described as ''a serious arsenal that could have caused major casualties in cities''.

The government says its support for the Palestinian cause and the Lebanese resistance is helping pull the rug from under militant groups and avert the kind of attacks seen recently in Jordan and Egypt.

Reuters VD VP0002