A 2004 attack which killed a Hamas activist in Damascus was blamed on Israel [EPA]

Major attacks are rare in Syria, a tightly-controlled country with powerful security forces, but there have been a number of incidents in recent years, most of which have been blamed on Sunni Muslim groups.

April 1986: A string of co-ordinated attacks around the northern fishing port of Tartus and several other towns kill at least 144 people and injure another 149.

Syrian officials blame Saddam Hussein, the then-president of neighbouring Iraq.
 
December 1996: An explosion on a bus in a Damascus neighbourhood kills 13 people and wounds 40 others.
 
April 2004: Three assailants, a policeman and a woman passer-by die in a gun battle in an area of Damascus which includes a number of diplomatic missions.

The government blames al-Qaeda, but the attack is claimed by a group which says it wants to avenge the government crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama in 1982.
 
September 2004: A car bomb in southern Damascus kills an official of the Palestinian Hamas movement and three passers-by. Both the  government and Hamas blame Israel.
 
September 2006: Three armed men and a member of the security forces are killed and 14 people wounded in a failed attempt to set off a car bomb outside the US embassy in Damascus.

Hezbollah blames Israel, but it denies any involvement.
 
August 6, 2008: Syria confirms the assassination of Mohammed Sleiman, an army general described in the Arab media as having been the government's liaison with the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
 
September 27, 2008: Seventeen civilians die in a car bomb blast on a road leading to the Damascus's airport.

Recommend this article...

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: