Weapons Car Bombs Suspected perpetrators Iraqi agents | Deaths 204 Motive Regime destabilization | |
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Location Damascus and nearby towns, Syria Date March-April 1986 (Local time) | ||
The 1986 Damascus bombings were a series of terrorist acts, performed in Damascus, Syria in 1986, considered to be the deadliest terrorism act against civilians since the quelling of the Islamist uprising in Syria in 1982. The bombings appeared to be aimed at destabilizing the Syrian government.
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Bombings
On 13 March 1986, a bombing took place in Damascus that left 60 people dead. A month later, 144 were killed by a series of bombings in five towns across Syria.
Alleged perpetrators
The Syrian government blamed Iraq for the March bombing and "Israeli agents operating from inside Lebanon" for the April bombings. The Muslim Brotherhood, which was crushed in the 1982 Hama massacre, was proposed as a possible perpetrator of the terrorist acts. The BBC reported in 2008 that "pro-Iraqi militants" were "believed" to be responsible for both the April and March bombings.