Syria Blames Israel for Lethal Bus Bomb

DAMASCUS, Syria — The government blamed Israel’s intelligence service Thursday for a bus bombing that ripped off the vehicle’s roof and blew out the windows of nearby buildings, killing nine people and injuring 44.

It was Syria’s first comment on the New Year’s Eve blast on a bus bound for the northern city of Aleppo.

The official Syrian news agency accused the Mossad of setting off the explosion, saying: “This terrorist, criminal, cowardly act comes amid the escalation of Israeli threats by a number of Israeli officials lately aiming to kill the peace process.”

In Jerusalem, David Bar-Illan, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called the Syrian allegation “sheer nonsense.”

The U.S. State Department on Thursday challenged Syria to provide evidence backing up its accusation.

“We certainly have no indication and no information available to us that the Israeli government had any relationship to this whatsoever,” spokesman Nicholas Burns said. “It is a very serious charge for one state to accuse another of actually sponsoring bombings in its capital. . . . If the Syrian government and the Syrian press cannot back up what they are saying, well, they ought not to make that charge.”

Israel suspended peace talks with Syria in February amid a wave of suicide bombings that Israeli authorities blamed on Palestinian militants. Israeli military officials have warned in recent weeks that war with the Jewish state’s neighbor is possible.

The bus bombing follows a series of attacks on Syrians in Lebanon, where right-wing Christians are strongly opposed to the control exercised by Damascus over the Lebanese government.

Syria has 40,000 soldiers in Lebanon and is the main power broker in the neighboring country.

Media reports in Lebanon have linked the anti-Syria campaign to meetings between Lebanese Christians and Israeli officials.