The UNSC has strongly condemned an attack on Russia’s Damascus embassy, describing it an “act of terrorism.” A mortar shell hit Russia’s diplomatic mission compound on Thursday while another landed nearby, killing one local person and injuring nine.
A top UN body issued a statement, expressing condolences to the
family of the victim and sympathy to all those injured in this
“heinous terrorist act.”
The attack occurred at about 1300 GMT.
“One mine exploded on the territory of the diplomatic mission,
another exploded near the fence outside the embassy,"
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, commenting on the
incident.
The diplomatic mission compound has sustained minor damage and no Russians have been injured in the attack, the Foreign Ministry confirmed.
However, nine Syrians including embassy security guards, have
been wounded and one man was killed.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that “mortar attacks by
militants” in the central part of Damascus, including attacks
on the territory of Russia’s Embassy, have become more frequent
recently.
“[We] treat them as acts of terrorism, the perpetrators and
those who encourage and direct them must be punished,” the
FM’s press-office said in the statement.
The United States has also condemned the attack in Damascus and expressed “concern for those killed and injured in the incident.”
“We condemn any attack against individuals or facilities
protected by international law. The United States continues to
emphasize that those responsible for atrocities on all sides must
be held accountable,” the US State Department said in a
statement Thursday.
In the recent months of the ongoing civil war in Syria, rebels
have launched a number of mortar shells into the upscale Mazraa
district of Damascus, which houses many embassies and senior
Syrian officials.
Earlier in September, a mortar shell hit the Russian embassy
compound, injuring three people.
During the nearly three-year military conflict in Syria, the
Russian embassy sustained its worst damaged in February 2013,
when a car bomb exploded nearby, killing 50 people on the
Damascus highway. Back then no one was injured at the embassy,
but the blast blew out windows in the building.