Syrian Terrorists Attack Pro-Assad Ikhbariya TV Station, Killing Three

06/27/2012

BBC:

Gunmen have attacked a Syrian pro-government TV channel, killing three people, state media say.

The attack on Ikhbariya TV south of Damascus blew up the newsroom, Sana news agency reported.

Hours earlier, President Bashar al-Assad said Syria was in “a real state of war” and all policies and all sectors had to focus on winning.

US intelligence officials believe that despite some recent defections, his inner circle is still loyal to him.

The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says that Syrian TV dropped normal programming on Wednesday to run live coverage of the attack on the headquarters of Ikhbariya TV in the town of Drusha, some 20km (14 miles) south of the capital.

State TV showed pictures of burnt and wrecked buildings, with fires still smouldering.

 

 

Syria’s information minister, on a visit to the site, said the three victims had been abducted, bound, and killed in cold blood.

On Monday, the station was targeted by EU sanctions.

Addressing his new cabinet, the president criticised countries that have been calling for him to stand down, saying that the West “takes and never gives and this has been proven at every stage”.

Syrian TV described the attack, in the town of Drusha south of the capital Damscus, as an attempt by rebels to silence press freedom.

The Syrian government says 6,143 Syrian citizens have been killed by terrorist groups since the uprising began.

Related Link: Syrian Terrorists Set Government Tank Ablaze with Crew Inside