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Missiles destroy Iranian embassy

Unknown forces claim responsibility

BEIRUT (AutoMaglnt) At dawn today, missiles destroyed the embassy of Iran in Damascus. Syrian state radio, monitored in Beirut, reported that the attack had also heavily damaged the embassies of the People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Owing to the continuing sectarian fighting in Syria and the Bekaa Valley between forces loyal to President Hafez Assad and rebellious army units demanding an Islamic state, journalists based here could not confirm the conflicting reports of chemical weapons employed in the attack. However, sources that asked not to be named told of rescue workers withdrawing from the scene with blistered hands and severe respiratory distress.

The embassies of North Korea and Marxist Yemen could not be reached by telephone.

Iranian national radio denounced Syrian President Hafez Assad for "his vicious attack on the sovereign grounds of our embassy."

Sources in Beirut and Tripoli would not comment on the accusations of Syrian complicity in the barrage.

In Beirut, a caller speaking for a previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the attack. Speaking in idiomatic American English, the caller stated, "The Cowboy Jihad righteously wasted that gang of crazies. We'll never forget October 23, 1983. Tell the mullahs, you can run and you can hide, but the posse of the apocalypse rides in the night. The payback won't quit till we kill talkshit Khomeini!"