Blasts & Gunfire In Damascus

Syrian security forces clashed with a "terrorist band" late Tuesday in Damascus, Syrian television reported. Explosions and gunfire were heard in a neighborhood where foreign diplomats live and work.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

Syrian television, in a brief statement, said the "terrorist band" opened fire indiscriminately, and that security forces gave chase and were in control of the situation. It gave no other details.

Syria has not seen such violence in years.

Residents of the area reported explosions and gunfire in the Mazza neighborhood. Smoke was seen billowing from the area, which security forces sealed off, the residents said.

The French news agency AFP reported that a U.N. building was on fire, but that could not be independently confirmed.

Al-Jazeera reported that car bombs were used in the attack and that heavy exchanges of gunfire were continuing late into the night.

Al-Arabiya quoted a witness saying more than 15 explosions were heard.

A Saudi consulate, the British ambassador's home, offices of the Iranian state news agency, the Iranian Embassy and the Canadian Embassy are in Mazza, on the western edge of the city. State Department officials tell CBS News Reporter Charles Wolfson the blast was in an area near Damascus University.

In London, a British Foreign Office spokesman said an explosion and shooting was heard near the Iranian ambassador's residence and in the vicinity of the British ambassador's residence.

"At the moment, there are no injuries to U.K. Embassy staff. Our staff are in the process of assessing the situation," the Foreign Office spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on the same terms, later said, "We understand it was not aimed at the British ambassador's residence.

The Foreign Office says the explosion was closer to the Iranian Embassy than the British Embassy, and report no damage to their compound, reports CBS News' Charles D'Agata.

An Iranian Embassy official in Damascus said Iran's embassy was not involved in any attack. The official spoke to Lebanon's al-Manar television station, which is run by the pro-Iranian guerrilla group Hezbollah.

Syrian political analyst Imad Shuaibi told The Associated Press he had learned that two men "attacked with hand grenades and gunfire near the Iranian and Canadian embassies."

"One was killed and the other was captured," Shuaibi said.

Syria has been on the U.S. State Department's list of terror-sponsoring nations for its support of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that attack Israel. Syria, though, says the anti-Israeli groups are not terrorist, and that it has an interest in fighting Islamic extremist groups like al Qaeda.

Neighboring Jordan said several suspected terrorists entered the country from Syria last month in a foiled plot to carry out attacks on targets including the U.S. Embassy in Amman, the prime minister's office and the secret service agency.

Damascus denied claims that suspected terrorists entered Jordan from Syria and has said it is trying to stop foreign fighters from cross from its territory into Iraq, but that the long, porous border is hard to police.

In December, President Bush approved the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, which accuses Syria of hosting militant Palestinian groups and of seeking biological and chemical weapons.

The act says Syria must withdraw its 20,000 troops from neighboring Lebanon and stop militants and weapons from crossing its border into Iraq, and adds that if Damascus does not comply, Washington can impose economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Syria denies pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Syria's hard-line government fought a fierce war with Islamic fundamentalists of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was blamed for a 1980 assassination attempt on President Hafez Assad, the country's authoritarian leader. Assad was succeeded by his son, Bashar Assad, after his death of natural causes in 2000.

The elder Assad suffered minor injuries after gunmen open fire with automatic weapons and grenades in the 1980 attack.

Syrian special forces troops massacred some 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood members in Tadmur Military Prison near Palmyra to avenge the assassination attempt.

In 1982, the Muslim Brotherhood staged a rebellion in the northern province of Hama. During the clashes, Syrian forces razed much of the city, killing as many as 10,000 people and finally crushing the Brotherhood after five-year war.