A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows onlookers gathering amid the debris and destroyed vehicles at the scene of twin blasts in Damascus.          -AFP Photo

DUBAI: Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt, has denied in a statement that it had claimed responsibility for Damascus bombings last week that killed 55 people.

“Many news agencies, news websites, and satellite channels... have attributed” the Damascus bombings on Thursday targeting the security services “to Al-Nusra Front, based on a video posted on YouTube,” said the statement dated May 13.

“But we say, this video as well as the statement appearing in it are fabricated and... full of errors,” the group said in the statement published on jihadist forums.

“We did not receive from the front’s military department any affirmation or denial or information regarding the operation,” the group said.

“Any further information arriving (on the attack) will be published on official jihadist forums.”

In the apparently faked video, Al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the bombings, the deadliest since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in March 2011, “in response to regime bombing of residential areas in Damascus, Idlib, Hama, Daraa provinces and others.”

The group had claimed responsibility for previous bombings in Syria but these have been difficult to verify.

In the latest video, the speaker’s voice is electronically modified and no images of militants are shown.

The statement accompanying the video is titled “Communique No. 4,” although the group has already posted seven previous communiques.

The group has allegedly claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including double blasts in Damascus on March 17 that killed 27 people, as well as two other deadly explosions in the capital and two in the northern city of Aleppo.

Russia's foreign ministry has pointed the finger of blame for the bombings squarely at al Qaeda extremists, despite claims by the Syrian opposition that Assad’s government carried out the devastating attacks.

Analysts believe that while Al Qaeda itself does not exist in Syria, several splinter groups of jihadists who employ the same strategies as the network are operating there.

More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, including more than 900 killed since a shaky truce went into effect on April 12.

Opinion

Editorial

Closed doors
Updated 08 Jan, 2025

Closed doors

The nation’s fate has been decided through secret deals for too long, with the result that the citizenry has become increasingly alienated from the state.
Debt burden
08 Jan, 2025

Debt burden

THE federal government’s total debt stock soared by above 11pc year-over-year to Rs70.4tr at the end of November,...
GB power crisis
08 Jan, 2025

GB power crisis

MASS protests are not a novelty in Pakistan, and when the state refuses to listen through the available channels —...
Fragile peace
Updated 07 Jan, 2025

Fragile peace

Those who have lost loved ones, as well as those whose property has been destroyed in the clashes, must get justice.
Captive power cut
07 Jan, 2025

Captive power cut

THE IMF’s refusal to relax its demand for discontinuation of massively subsidised gas supplies to mostly...
National embarrassment
Updated 07 Jan, 2025

National embarrassment

The global eradication of polio is within reach and Pakistan has no excuse to remain an outlier.