Mortar Shells Strike Near Russian Embassy in Syria

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/14/world/middleeast/russia-syria-embassy.html

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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Two mortar shells struck the grounds of the Russian Embassy in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Tuesday, an attack that Russia’s foreign minister called “an act of terrorism.”

The explosions, reported by Russian state news media and journalists on the scene, came as crowds of Syrians gathered at the embassy in a show of support for Russia’s new campaign of airstrikes on behalf of the Syrian government. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

“This is an obvious act of terrorism, probably aimed at terrifying supporters of the fight against terrorism,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said as he prepared to meet the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, in Moscow. He added that Russia was working with that Syrian authorities to find and punish the perpetrators.

Syrian insurgents in the Damascus suburbs periodically shell the government-controlled center of the city, and projectiles have hit near the embassy in the past. For more than four years, government forces have been shelling the poorer towns ringing the city, many of which revolted early in the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The attack on the embassy comes as Russia has intensified its airstrikes against Syrian insurgents. Both Russia and the United States say they are battling the Islamic State extremist group, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, but the two countries have taken opposite sides in the fighting between Mr. Assad and the other insurgent groups fighting him.

Russia’s airstrikes have mainly hit non-Islamic State groups, including the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, as well as American-backed groups. Russian officials dismiss distinctions between the insurgent groups and say they are all terrorists and legitimate targets.

There were no immediate reports that any buildings in the Russian Embassy compound had been hit by the mortar shells Tuesday morning. Russian state news media said that the first shell struck 200 yards away. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain with a network of contacts across Syria, said that ambulances were seen in the area afterward.

By afternoon, Syria’s state news media had not reported the attack, carrying only an item about Syrians’ demonstrating to thank Russia for its “seriousness in fighting terrorism” and to reject “any foreign interference in their internal affairs.”

The uprising against Mr. Assad began in 2011 with political protests that were violently suppressed, with the arrests of thousands of demonstrators; many have died under torture, according to opposition groups, while many others remain missing.