A suicide bomber has struck at the heart of Syria's top command, killing three of President Bashar al-Assad's security chiefs in an attack claimed by rebels, who warned of more carnage to come.
Wednesday's bombing, which an official blamed on a bodyguard attending a meeting of security chiefs at their Damascus headquarters, prompted US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to warn that Syria was "spinning out of control."
The attack, which targeted Assad's inner core for the first time in a 16-month uprising, came ahead of a showdown between the West and Russia and China over a draft UN resolution calling for sanctions that now appears to have been pushed back by a day to Thursday.
A Syrian security official told AFP the bombing was carried out by a bodyguard of one of the ministers or security chiefs at the meeting. The attacker had been wearing an explosives belt.
The blast killed Defence Minister General Daoud Rajha, Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, the head of the regime's crisis cell, state media said.
Bomb strikes at core of Syria regime | The Australian
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