1986 Damascus bombings

{{Infobox civilian attack

| partof =

| title = 1986 Damascus bombings

| image = Damascus-map.png

| caption = Damascus highlighted within Syria

| location = Damascus and nearby towns, Syria

| coordinates =

| date = March–April 1986

| time =

| timezone =

| type = Bombings

| fatalities = 204

| injuries =

| perps =

| perp =

| weapons = Car bombs

| motive = Regime destabilization{{cite book|author=Patrick Seale|title=Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East|url=https://archive.org/details/asadofsyriastrug00seal|url-access=registration|date=11 January 1990|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-06976-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/asadofsyriastrug00seal/page/473 473]–}}

}}{{Campaignbox Islamist uprising in Syria}}

The 1986 Damascus bombings were a series of terrorist attacks perpetrated in Damascus, Syria in 1986. They were the deadliest acts of terrorism against civilians since the quelling of the Islamist uprising in Syria in 1982. The bombings appeared to be aimed at destabilizing the Syrian government under Hafez al-Assad with links being between the suspected perpetrators and Iraq.

Bombings

On 13 March 1986, a truck bomb detonated under a bridge in a Damascus suburb, killing 60 people and injuring 100 more.{{cite book|title=Terrorism: without special title|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J4baAAAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Oceana Publications|page=121}}{{cite book|author=Gus Martin|title=The New Era of Terrorism: Selected Readings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mhl__VpIFsC&pg=PA36|date=27 February 2004|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-0-7619-8873-1|pages=36–}} A month later, 144 were killed by a series of bombings in five towns and cities across Syria, including Damascus, with buses being a prime target.{{cite book|author=Noam Chomsky|title=Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTnvBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA257|date=23 March 2015|publisher=Haymarket Books|isbn=978-1-60846-442-5|pages=257–}}

Alleged perpetrators

Immediately after the March bombing, the Syrian government placed the blame on Iraq, citing their desire to destabilize the regime. After the April 1986 bombings claimed the lives of an additional 144 people, a previously unknown group with pro-Iraq sympathies calling themselves the 17 October Group for the Liberation of the Syrian People, claimed responsibility.{{cite book|author=Europa Publications|title=A Political Chronology of the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCSOT0_JAnwC&pg=PA219|date=2 September 2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-35673-6|pages=219–}} The BBC reported in 2008 that "pro-Iraqi militants" were "believed" to be responsible for both the March and April bombings.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7639137.stm |title=Middle East | Syrian car bomb attack kills 17 |work=BBC News |date=2008-09-27 |access-date=2014-02-20}}