Yahoo News/Reuters: The American flag flies at full mast at the US Embassy in Damascus

CNN: Pipe and propane bombs at the scene

Three killed–they were gunmen shouting “Allah akbar!”

Update: An al Qaeda “offshoot” is suspected. Revised casualty figures:

Syrian security forces killed four attackers Tuesday outside the U.S. Embassy in Damascus after a car exploded near the walls of the American compound, the Syrian Information Ministry said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but an al Qaeda offshoot group called Jund al-Sham — or Soldiers of Lebanon — is suspected, said Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States.

The radical fundamentalist group has been blamed for several attacks in Syria in recent years, Moustapha said.

One Syrian security guard protecting the embassy was killed in the attack, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported. Syrian authorities wounded and arrested another suspected attacker, the ministry said.

No American diplomats were harmed.

SANA reported 13 others were wounded, including an embassy policeman, a security worker and 11 civilians, among them two Iraqis and a Chinese.

AP has more:

Islamic militants attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in a brazen attack Tuesday using automatic rifles, hand grenades and at least one van rigged with explosives, the government said. Syrian security forces killed three of the attackers.

The assailants apparently did not breach the high walls surrounding the white embassy compound in a diplomatic neighborhood of Damascus. But a Chinese diplomat was slightly injured by a stray bullet during the attack, China’s government news agency said.

A witness said one Syrian guard outside the embassy also was killed, but the government did not immediately confirm that. At the embassy in Damascus, as at most American embassies worldwide, a local guard force patrols outside the compound’s walls while U.S. Marine guards are mostly responsible for guarding classified documents and fighting off attackers inside the compound.

Witnesses also said the gunmen tried to throw hand grenades into the embassy compound, shouting “Allah Akbar!” or “God is great!” It was not clear if any of the grenades made it over the walls, which are about 8 feet high.

Omri at Mere Rhetoric has thorough coverage from the time the news broke early this morning. Keep scrolling.

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