Police, gunmen battle

DAMASCUS, Syria — Gunmen attacked a former United Nations office in a diplomatic quarter of Damascus late Tuesday, setting off a battle with police that pelted nearby buildings with bullets and grenades. The government said two attackers, a policeman and a civilian were killed.

Syria has not seen such violence since the 1980s, when the government put down an insurgency by Islamic militants.

The vacant building was formerly occupied by the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, which oversees an agreement between Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights. It was extensively damaged by fire during the gunbattle.

"Unidentified terrorists attacked a U.N. office building in Damascus and this office is surrounded by many embassies as well," Syria’s ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha, said from Washington.

Moustapha said it was too early to know the motivation of the attackers or whether they were Islamic.

"There was a random exchange of fire and probably every building in that area was hit by a grenade or a bullet" before security forces surrounded the area and returned fire, he said.

Syria’s official news agency SANA, quoting a security source, called the attackers "a terrorist band."

The Al-Arabiya television network said there were four attackers. It said three were killed and one wounded.

Hours later, Sana reported that authorities raided a "terrorist hideout" in the nearby town of Khan al-Sheih and recovered a variety of weapons belonging to the attackers. The arms, which including rocket-propelled grenades, guns and ammunition, were shown on Syrian Television.

After the gunbattle, large crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the damaged building. Youths drove by honking car horns, waving pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and chanting pro-Syrian and pro-Assad slogans.

In Washington, an administration official said there were no reports of American casualties. She added that the embassy expects to be closed on Wednesday along with the school in Damascus that serves the American community.

Witnesses, who said the violence started about 7:20 p.m. and lasted 70 minutes, gave different reports that could not immediately be reconciled.

One witness said four gunmen came out of a white van on the main Mazza Boulevard in front of the Canadian Embassy and started shooting indiscriminately. A police car on patrol in the area rushed to the scene and came under fire. The police shot back and police and plainclothes security forces reinforcements arrived, the witness said.

Three gunmen were killed and a fourth was taken into custody, the witness reported. Five cars were gutted and there was a fire at the building where the United Nations used to have offices. Police explosives experts were brought to the scene to examine the bodies of the dead gunmen to make sure they were not booby-trapped.

Copyright ©2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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