Killing their own again

The Los Angeles Times has an article by Borzou Daragahi about a car bomb in Damascus:

A car bomb explosion ripped through a mostly Iraqi district on the outskirts of Damascus this morning, killing at least 17 people and injuring 14 in the deadliest apparent terrorist attack in Syria in 22 years.
Official Syrian media quoted sources saying the vehicle was loaded with more than 400 pounds of explosives and was detonated between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. local time in a busy pedestrian area near an intersection leading to the tomb of Zainab, an important shrine holy to Islam's Shiite sect, and a small outpost housing security officials.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency reported that a counterterrorism unit often deployed against Islamic radicals has been dispatched to investigate the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Sunni Arab militant groups inspired or connected to al Qaeda.
"We cannot accuse any party," Bassam Abdul-Majid, Syria's interior minister, told state television, according to Arab news websites. "There are ongoing investigations that will lead us to those who carried it out."
Syria's secular government has for decades fought against Islamic radicals, including Al Qaida and the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Syrian authorities thwarted a 2006 attack on the U.S. in Damascus by gunmen driving a car bomb. Four died in a gun battle following a 2004 attack by suspected Islamic militants in a diplomatic district of Damascus.
Syrians have also been irked by the flood of up to two million Iraqi refugees who've settled in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. In addition to taxing public services and infrastructure, Syrians have long worried that Iraqis would bring their now-stifled sectarian civil conflict across the border.

Rico says they shouldn't be surprised; it's the national sport of the Middle East...