Syria’s state news agency released the following statement, suggesting al-Qaida was responsible.

“Two terrorist attacks on Friday targeted [the] state security directorate and another security branch in Damascus, causing many military and civilian deaths and the majority were civilians.

“Preliminary investigations indicated that that the criminal attack carries the blueprints of al-Qaida.

“The two attacks, according to the investigations, were carried out by two suicide bombers with two booby-trapped cars.  security branch in Damascus, causing many military and civilian deaths and the majority were civilians.”

The two attacks, according to the investigations, were carried out by two suicide bombers with two booby-trapped cars.

But on the blog The Arab Digest, an unnamed Middle East reporter says the Damascus attack is reminiscent of the 2005 assassination of the Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri – a killing which at the time was blamed on al-Qaida.

It speculates that the Assad regime is behind today’s attacks for the following reasons:

1. Friday is a day off which means more civilians will die than security services.

2. Arab League observers just arrived in town, and such operations serve the regime’s reasoning of current events, and justifies to some extent its heavy handedness.

3. Precedence. The regime has allegedly used a suicide bomber in Lebanon’s Hariri assassination.