Four HQ Guards Killed in Damascus Blasts, Islamist Group Claims Attack

Two suicide bombs struck the heavily guarded Syrian army headquarters in the heart of Damascus on Wednesday, killing four guards and sparking a gunbattle between troops and rebels, state media said.

A rebel officer and a rights group said the audacious attack which also left 14 people wounded was an inside job, while an Islamist rebel group said five of its fighters including a suicide bomber died in carrying out the assault.

The spectacular assault on the army's operations command center came as the worsening bloodshed, which left at least 217 dead on Tuesday, dominated proceedings at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

"Armed terrorist groups with affiliations abroad this morning carried out a new act of terrorism by detonating a car bomb and another device on the edge of the general staff compound," an army statement said.

"All senior commanders and other officers are safe and sound, and none of them was wounded," the statement carried by state media said.

But state television citing a military official said four troops guarding the headquarters were killed, and 14 civilians and soldiers injured.

The broadcaster showed video footage of a white van exploding on the roadside next to the building housing the headquarters, and a second blast inside the compound. It said the bombings were 10 minutes apart.

"The initial investigation shows that these terrorist explosions around and inside the army headquarters were caused by two car bombs driven by suicide attackers," the military official said.

President Bashar Assad's regime has systematically blamed unrest and violence on foreign-backed terrorist gangs ever since the revolt erupted in March 2011.

The rebel Free Syrian Army's Military Council in Damascus said on its Facebook page that "the Free Syrian Army has struck the military headquarters in Damascus's Umayyad Square."

A rebel officer and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was an inside job, while an Islamist rebel group said its men carried out the attack. The claims were impossible to verify.

"The operation was carried out by several Free Syrian Army battalions working with an officer and his troops on the inside," said Ahmed al-Khatib, spokesman for the FSA's Military Council in Damascus.

Khatib confirmed the attack was staged with two car bombs, but denied they were driven by suicide attackers, which is not a tactic used by the FSA in the past.

"A few minutes after the attack, fighters broke into the HQ compound with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades," said Khatib.

An Islamist rebel group, Tajamo Ansar al-Islam (Gathering of Partisans of Islam) also claimed responsibility. Five of its fighters, including a suicide bomber, were killed in the attack, the group said in a statement posted online.

The group said bombs placed on the third floor of the building with the help of sympathizers within the military had been detonated.

It was the most spectacular attack on the security forces since a July 18 suicide bombing against a heavily guarded headquarters in Damascus killed four top regime officials, including defense minister General Daoud Rajha and Assad's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.