Islamists claim Syria bombs were to 'avenge Sunnis' The group said the attacks were "to avenge the people of Homs" besieged by regime forces. A video posted on jihadist forums showed footage of the destruction caused by the January 6 car attack in Damascus that killed 26 people, and by a twin suicide car bombing in Aleppo on February 10 that killed 28 people. A double suicide car bombing targeting security installations in Damascus on Saturday killed 27 people, the interior ministry said, a day before a similar attack killed two more in Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub. Syria blamed the bombings on "armed terrorist gangs" which it holds responsible for the year-old bloodshed in the country that monitors say has cost more than 9,100 lives in a brutal crackdown on dissent. It has also pointed to an al-Qaeda role in the violence, while opposition activists have accused the Damascus regime of stage-managing attacks such as the car bombings to cause inter-sectarian strife. According to the US-based monitors SITE Intelligence Group, the terror network came out on January 23 with a message calling for armed struggle against the regime. Last month, US spy chief James Clapper said al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq had probably carried out the January and February suicide bombings in Syria, having infiltrated rebel forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The bomb attacks "had all the earmarks of an al-Qaeda-like attack," Clapper said at the time. And so we believe al-Qaeda in Iraq is extending its reach into Syria. al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has expressed support for Syrian rebels.