Car bomb targeted senior senior security official - report (3rd Lead)

Damascus - A car bomb in the Syrian capital Damascus killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 14 other persons Saturday morning in an attack which the government condemned as a 'cowardly act.' The bomb, which exploded near a secret service facility, was believed to be targeting a senior intelligence official who was in the building at the time, Lebanese media reported. There were no immediate reports whether this person was killed or injured. Witnesses in the area, however, said some of the killed were intelligence men in plain clothes who were killed near the secret service headquarters. The Syrian news agency SANA said earlier the bomb went off near the busy Sayyida Zainab district at 8:45 am. Both SANA and Lebanese media reports said the car was rigged with 200 kilograms of explosives. 'This is a cowardly act and it took place in a crowded area, killing 17 and wounding 14,' Syrian Interior Minister Colonel Bassam Abdel Majid told Syrian television. He said an investigation had been launched to find the culprits. A Syrian witness at the scene told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the vehicle was immediately removed. Anti-terrorism experts were at the scene and had cut all roads leading to the area, the witness said. Houses in the area are also being searched for suspects. The blast was so strong that it was heard in neighbourhoods around the city far from the scene. The Sayyida Zainab mosque, dedicated to a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed, is located in the area and is visited by Shiite Pilgrims. The Syrian source near the scene told dpa that some of the wounded were from Iran. Iranians are frequent visitors to the famous Shiite shrine. In recent years, many Shiite refugees from Iraq have settled near the mosque, which is close to the road to the city's international airport. Hassan Abdel Azim, spokesman of the opposition reformist Damascus Declaration group, told al Jazeera TV that the Syrian opposition condemns the explosion and regards it as 'an act of terrorism.' He said that Damascus Declaration and the democratic opposition in Syria reject any violent act and work for a peaceful, secured democratic change in the country. Abdel Azim called on the regime to open up to the Syrian society so as 'to remove any tense and to accomplish the national unity.' The last large blast in Damascus occurred in February, when Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah was killed. The Lebanese militant had been sought by the United States as a dangerous terrorist. The US and Israel charge Syria with supporting Hezbollah and radical Palestinian groups. In contrast to such neighbours as Lebanon and Iraq, bomb attacks are rare in Syria, with its extensive secret service network. Critics of President Bashar al-Assad have alleged after previous attacks that the secret service itself had orchestrated them in order to give the impression that Syria itself was threatened by Islamic terrorists. In recent weeks, the Iraqi government repeatedly stressed that Syria had changed its policies and was now making efforts to prevent the movement of terrorists into Iraq via the two countries' border.