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Damascus – The latest suicide bombings in the Syrian capital showed anincreasing ruthlessness: The attackers struck during rush hour,setting off one blast to draw a crowd before unleashing a muchbigger one, killing 55 people and leaving the street strewn withrubble and mangled bodies. For many, the Al Qaeda-style tactics recall those once familiar inthe country's eastern neighbor, Iraq, raising fears that Syria'sconflict is drifting further away from the Arab Spring calls forpolitical change and closer to a bloody insurgency. "Syria is slowly but surely turning into another Iraq," said BilalY. Saab, a Syria expert at the Monterey Institute of InternationalStudies. The presence of Al Qaeda militants and other extremists adds a wildcard element to the Syria conflict that could further hamperinternational efforts to end it. While world powers and U.N.observers in Syria can pressure the government and the oppositionto stick to special envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan, they have nomeans of influencing shadowy Islamic militants who often don'tclaim their own attacks. Western officials say there is little doubt that AlQaeda-affiliated extremists have made inroads in Syria since thepopular uprising against President Bashar Assad began 14 monthsago. But much remains unclear about their numbers, influence andactivities inside Syria. "We do have intelligence that indicates that there is an Al Qaedapresence in Syria, but frankly we don't have very good intelligenceas to just exactly what their activities are," U.S. DefenseSecretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Washington on Thursday. Panetta said he didn't know whether Al Qaeda was connected to thelatest bombings in Damascus. Amateur videos posted online provide occasional glimpses ofextremist activity. One video posted this week shows a suicide attack that reportedlytook place on May 2 in the northern town of Idlib. In the footage,a white van speeds toward an army checkpoint and erupts into a hugeball of flame as it nears the soldiers, sending their bodiesflying. In February, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims inneighboring countries to join the uprising, saying Syria's rebelsmust not rely on the West. Syria's uprising started in March 2011 with mostly peacefulprotests inspired by successful revolts elsewhere calling forpolitical reform. The Syrian government responded with a brutalcrackdown, prompting many in the opposition to take up arms todefend themselves and attack government troops. The U.N. said weeks ago that more than 9,000 people have beenkilled. Hundreds more have died since. Thursday's twin blasts in Damascus were the fifth in a string ofmajor attacks in Syrian cities that have clouded the picture of afight between the opposition and the regime. It was the deadliestyet, in part because it happened on a key thoroughfare during rushhour, while previous bombings were on weekends. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, although ashadowy militant group calling itself the Al-Nusra Front hasclaimed past attacks through statements posted on militantwebsites. Little is known about the group, although Westernintelligence officials say it could be a front for Al Qaeda. Throughout the conflict, the government and its foes have tried totar each other with accusations of links to the terror network. On Friday, Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian NationalCouncil, accused the government of cooperating with Al Qaeda tocarry out the Damascus attacks, using the violence as a way totaint the uprising. A day earlier, Syria's Ambassador to the United Nations, BasharJa'afari, told the U.N. Security Council in New York that Al Qaeda,backed by unnamed foreign governments, was behind the attacks. Late Friday, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and astrong Assad ally warned that attacks like Thursday's could tearSyria apart. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told supporters via videolinkthat the same hands that "destroyed and killed in Iraq ... want todestroy Syria today." Syria's rebels -- vastly outnumbered and outgunned by Assad's armedforces and security apparatus -- have adopted insurgency tactics,regularly ambushing military checkpoints and convoys. But Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey differentiatedThursday between extremists and the opposition. "We do know that there have been extremist elements that are tryingto make inroads in Syria," he said. "That is to be distinct fromthe opposition. I'm not tying those together." Sometimes, the line between them is unclear. On Friday, the pro-government TV station Ikhbariya said police shotdead a man driving a truck filled with 1,500 kilograms (3,300pounds) of explosives. It broadcast video of a police generalshowing two U.N. observers a minibus holding four large metalcontainers rigged with explosives. In the driver's seat, a bearded, bloodied man wore what appeared tobe an explosive belt. "It was similar to the terrorist attack that targeted Damascusyesterday," the general told the observers. The videos could not be independently verified, and the oppositionoften accuses pro-Assad media of staging events. Nor was it clearwhat group -- if any -- the would-be bomber belonged to. World powers have backed a peace plan by international envoy KofiAnnan that calls for a truce to allow for dialogue on a politicalsolution to the conflict. The plan has been troubled from the start, with neither side fullyrespecting a cease-fire that was supposed to begin on April 12. Butthe presence of international observers has brought the daily deathtoll down and halted large government assaults on opposition areas. U.N. headquarters in New York announced that as of Friday there are145 military observers and 56 civilian staff deployed in Syria. Most experts don't expect Annan's plan to fully succeed, and manysay large attacks are likely to become more common. "I think increasingly we'll see less directed bombings and morearbitrary ones that seek to create chaos more than anything else,"said Bassam Haddad, director of the Middle East Studies Program atGeorge Mason University. I am an expert from industrialfurnaceparts.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Biomass Gasification System , Bell Type Furnace Manufacturer, Walking Beam Furnace,and more.
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