Russian embassy in Damascus comes under mortar fire, no one hurt - Russian foreign ministry

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Russia’s embassy in Damascus came under mortar fire on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said. "The embassy was shelled presumably from the Jobar district controlled by illegal armed groups," he said. "One mine went off 15 metres off the main entrance gate of our diplomatic mission. Another mine broke through the outer wall and hit an office in the embassy building." "Luckily, no one was hurt. The building was damaged," he said. "We consider this fact as a terrorist attack against the Russian embassy and condemn those behind it," the diplomat said. "We reiterate our solidarity with the Syrian authorities in their efforts to rebuff the terrorist threat in Syria." "We call on the international community to respond to this terrorist attack against the Russian diplomatic mission. We urge all parties enjoying influence on extremists in Syria to demand they immediately stop such actions and armed confrontation in general in order to create conditions for a political settlement in Syria through a wide intra-Syrian dialogue on the basis of the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012," he said. Read more