DAMASCUS, 12 June 2005 — Syrian police broke up an Islamist “terror” group during a shootout in Damascus this week that left its chief and another member dead, as well as a policeman, state news agency SANA reported yesterday.
“Abu Omar, chief of the Tanzim Jund Ash-Sham (Organization of the Soldiers of the Levant) was killed Thursday night during a clash with security forces in a southern suburb” of the capital, the report said.
Another member of the group, identified as Abu Ahmed, also died while a third was arrested. The report said security forces had spent a month carrying out surveillance of the group which had planned various attacks in Damascus and surrounding areas, including on the main courthouse.
Weapons, bombs, ammunition, documents and brochures were found in a flat rented by the men, it added. The report said a number of members of the group were arrested several months ago over another suspected plot against the courthouse, but that this had not been announced so as not to compromise the secrecy of the ongoing operation.
SANA said Syria’s state-controlled press would publish more details in the coming days. Tanzim Jund Ash-Sham was first heard of in March, when an Internet statement in the name of the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing against a theatre in Qatar that claimed the life of a Briton.
Meanwhile, Syrian Prime Minister Naji Al-Otari discussed economic cooperation with two Iraqi ministers yesterday and said Syria was keen to promote the stability and security of its neighbor.
US officials have repeatedly accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent militant Islamists from crossing into Iraq to fight its forces. Syria, which opposed the US-led war in Iraq, says it is cooperating for Iraq stability.
“The prime minister emphasized Syria’s keenness on the security and stability of Iraq and that its future is set in line with its own will and in the framework of its unity both in terms of territory and people,” the official news agency said.
