A Chinese diplomat was injured yesterday during a car bomb attack on the US embassy in the capital of Syria, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed last night.

Four men shouting Islamic slogans tried to blow up the US embassy which is next to the Chinese diplomatic compound but their car bomb failed to explode and Syrian security guards killed three of them in a shootout.

A piece of shrapnel hit political attach Li Hongyu in the face, said ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Li has been hospitalized and is in a stable condition, Qin added.

No US diplomat was hurt.

The state news agency SANA said a Syrian guard was killed and 13 people were wounded, including two Syrian security men.

Television footage of the scene showed a van packed with gas canisters and detonators taped to them, as well as bloodstains on the pavement and several damaged vehicles, including a white bullet-riddled car that a truck was preparing to haul away.

The embassy flag was at half-mast one day after the fifth anniversary of al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the United States.

It was the first such shooting and bombing assault on an embassy in Damascus and Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Majid said the attack was a "terrorist operation".

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was too early to know who was behind the attack. "We will have to do the forensics," she added at a news conference in Canada.

Syrian-US relations have been tense for many years, mainly over Syria's role in Lebanon, the Middle East conflict and Iraq, as well as its alleged support for militant groups in the region.

A US embassy statement said the Syrian government had pledged "full security co-operation" in meetings between US diplomats and Syrian officials following the attack.

The embassy confirmed there were no American casualties.

Syrian state television said the attackers had tried but failed to detonate a car bomb.

"I saw two men in plain clothes and armed with grenades and automatic weapons," said Ayman Abdel-Nour, a Syrian political commentator who was in the area.

Source: China Daily