The Threat Widens

The number of people and institutions that are perceived to be legitimate targets by terrorists seems to be increasing. Firstly politicians, then journalists, then the army, now a car belonging to the US Embassy was attacked today. No US Diplomats were killed, but 4 Lebanese passers-by were. Some reports say that the reason that the US car (which is always massively armour-plated) was not more badly damaged is that a car was overtaking the US vehicle, and took the full force of the blast. US cars drive pretty fast at the best of times, so goodness knows how fast the poor occupants of the other car were going.

US Embassy security is Alcatraz-like. The Diplomats there are only allowed out two or three times a week, they have to be back in by 2am, they have a security team case the place they are going to beforehand, and they are always, always accompanied by a bodyguard and have an armoured vehicle with them. Obviously, this makes them pretty easy to spot, and it's a hobby for many Lebanese to spot the Diplomat. The sobering thought is that even with all this security, they are not safe and if people want to get you here, they will.

It's too early to try and imagine where all this could lead - this attack could have been a message to Bush who is in Saudi at the moment, I think. I saw him on TV with a ceremonial sword in his hand and for a minute I thought he was offering to carry out a public beheading. There are rumours here that the politicians were ready to announce a compromise solution the other day, but held off because Bush was in the region and they couldn't stomach him taking any of the credit. I think the next (14th?) meeting will be on Monday... we'll see what's announced then.

In other news, we had a fabulous and chilled New Year in Aleppo, caught some crusader castles, ate loads of food and stayed in the Baron Hotel, in TE Lawrence's room! Photos to follow...