One day after the world commemorated the lives lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, local security forces foiled a car bomb attack in Damascus by defusing a bomb in a vehicle parked in front of the US embassy and gunning down the assailants as they fled the scene.

No American diplomats were harmed.

Witnesses said the gunmen shouted religious slogans, and tried -- and failed -- to detonate a car bomb and threw a grenade into the embassy compound.

According to eye-witness accounts and media reports, a group of armed men attacked the compound. After trying to seek refuge in a nearby building, three were killed, and one was wounded and captured,

The attack is now over, said State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper, through the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.

"A terrorist operation targeted the US embassy. Security forces have brought the situation under control," Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majid was reported as saying on state television. "An investigation is now under way."

Security forces have now sealed off the Rawda area, which houses other embassies and security installations.

Unrest continues

Damascus has seen a number of flare-ups in recent years, including a suspected attempt to bomb the Canadian embassy.

In April 2004, four people were killed in a clash between Syrian police and a team of suspected bombers in the diplomatic quarter of Damascus.

In June, four gunmen and a guard died when Syrian
security forces said they had foiled an attack by Islamist
militants near the premises of state-run television in Damascus.

Hostility

The attempted attack comes amid growing hostility between Washington and Damascus, which resents US support for Israeli military action in Lebanon.

In turn, the US accuses Syria of supporting the insurgency in Iraq, and failing to prevent arms reaching Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.