Explosions in Damascus

Something is happening in Damascus, Syria, but details are sketchy:

Blasts and heavy shooting shook the Syrian capital, Damascus, late on Tuesday, Arab television stations reported.

Al Jazeera television said the blasts and shooting were heard from a western district of Damascus where it said the British ambassador's residence and the Saudi embassy are located.

More as the story develops.

UPDATE: A later report says:

Masked assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at a building which formerly housed a UN office in the Syrian capital, witnesses said.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the concept of terrorists embarrassing a terror regime that happens to sit on the UN Security Council by attacking a former, not even current, UN building and what this says about the UN's prospects for bringing an insurgency-free legitimacy to the next Iraqi government. But I'm stumped.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 27, 2004 11:15 AM