7 killed in attack on pro-Assad TV channel

Gunmen broke through the gates of a pro-government Syrian TV channel headquarters on Wednesday, bombing buildings and shooting dead seven employees, state media said, in one of the boldest attacks yet on a symbol of the authoritarian state. President Bashar al-Assad declared late on Tuesday that his country was at war and the attack on al-Ikhbariya’s offices -- located20 km (15 miles) south of the capital -- as well as overnight fighting on the outskirts of Damascus show that 16 months of violence is now rapidly encroaching on the capital. Footage aired on al-Ikhbariya showed bullet holes pockmarked a two-story concrete building and pools of blood on the floor. One building made of corrugated iron had been almost completely destroyed and flames licked at the metal frame. “The terrorist groups stormed the offices of Al-Ikhbariya, planted explosives in the studios and blew up them with up along with the equipment,” Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi told the television in a live interview. “They carried out the worst massacre against the media, executing journalists and security staff,” Zohbi said, according to AFP. “This didn’t come out of nowhere,” he added, pointing to European Union sanctions imposed on the pro-government media. “I heard a small explosion then a huge explosion and gunmen ran in. They ransacked the offices and entirely destroyed the newsroom,” an employee who works at the offices in the town of Drousha told state media at the scene. The Syrian press is tightly regulated by the Ministry of Information. Although al-Ikhbariya is privately owned, opponents of Assad say it is a government mouthpiece. During the pro-democracy revolt against the Assad family’s four-decade rule, al-Ikhbariya has been pushing to counter what it says is a campaign of misinformation by Western and Arab satellite channels on the uprising, which it describes as a foreign-backed "terrorist conspiracy".