DAMASCUS: Two rockets struck the Russian embassy compound in Damascus on Tuesday, sparking panic as several hundred people gathered to express their support for Moscow’s air war in Syria, witnesses said.

Some 300 people had begun to gather for a demonstration backing Russia’s recent intervention in Syria when the rockets crashed into the embassy compound in the Mazraa neighbourhood of the capital, journalists at the scene said.

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There was widespread panic among the demonstrators, who moments earlier had been waving Russian flags and holding up large photographs of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Quoted by Russian news agency Interfax, senior embassy official Eldar Kurbanov said: “Two rockets hit embassy territory at 10:15am. No one was killed or wounded.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the rockets were fired from the eastern edges of the capital, where Islamist rebels are entrenched.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the shelling of the embassy as an “act of terror”.

“It is a clear act of terror meant to scare supporters of fighting terrorism,” Mr Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

“We are counting on the perpetrators being found and that measures be taken to prevent such acts in the future,” he said, adding Moscow would investigate the incident along with Syrian authorities.

Late last month Russia launched a bombing campaign in the war-torn country at the request of its ally President Bashar al-Assad against what Moscow said were targets of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group and other terrorists.

On Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry said its air force had hit 86 targets in Syria in the past 24 hours, destroying “terrorist” command posts, training camps and ammunition depots.

And Syria’s Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front called on militants from the Caucasus to perpetrate attacks in Russia in response to the air strikes.

Mr Lavrov was on Tuesday meeting the United Nations’ Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in Moscow for the first time since the Kremlin launched its bombing campaign.

The Russian embassy has been attacked in the past as well.

On September 21, just nine days before it began its air war in Syria, Moscow demanded “concrete action” after a shell hit the embassy’s compound in Damascus.

In May, one person was killed by mortar rounds that landed nearby. Three were hurt when mortar rounds landed inside the compound in April.

Published in Dawn, October 14th , 2015

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