According to first reports, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device Friday, Feb. 1, at a side entrance to the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey, killing two security guards and causing other casualties.  Ambulances and fire engines have reached the site of the massive explosion which sent smoke and debris flying into the street. Turkish sources quote witnesses as seeing the bomber approach the embassy building and enter a gate in the fortified compound. They were not clear whether he entered the building before detonating his explosives.
The embassy staff took cover in a fortified part of the embassy after the blast. Local TV showed damage to a wall of the compound and what appeared to be a bullet-proof window in the embassy building smashed.


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http://news.antiwar.com/2013/01/31/syria-complains-to-un-over-israel-attack-threatens-retaliation/

Syria Complains to UN Over Israel Attack, Threatens Retaliation

US Warns Syria After Attack

by Jason Ditz, January 31, 2013
The Syrian Foreign Ministry has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon complaining about yesterday’s Israeli air strike against them and expressing his sense that Syria has a “right to defend itself, its territory and sovereignty” from such strikes.
Ban issued a statement expressing concern about the strike and urging all sides to avoid escalation and respect one another’s territorial integrity. Israel has yet to officiallycomment on the attack, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted at more strikes in the future.
The Obama Administration, for its part, issued a statement warning Syria in the wake of the attacks, cautioning them against “further destabilizing the region” with weapons transfers. US officials claimed Israel was attacking a weapons convoy, though Syrian officials say the strike actually targeted a building.
Syria is highly unlikely to launch any actual retaliatory strikes against Israel unless they continue to launch more attacks. It is more likely, in the midst of their ongoing civil war that they will try to use the strike to foster sympathy, and to forward claims that the strike, and the rebellion, are part of a broader Western effort for regime change.
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/01/31/white-house-slams-iran-centrifuge-upgrade-as-escalation/

White House Slams Iran Centrifuge Upgrade as ‘Escalation’

White House 'Not Surprised' by Announcement

by Jason Ditz, January 31, 2013
The US has responded to a leaked IAEA report on Iran’s plan to install upgraded centrifuges in Natanz as a “further escalation” and a “provocation,” though it added that it was “not surprised” that Iran is doing so.
Iran informed the IAEA of the plan to install its new centrifuges, an improvement on the IR-2 design, though the leaked IAEA memo did not say how many would be installed. They are dramatically more efficient than the existing P-1 centrifuges being used at present.
Iran has been enriching uranium both to produce fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant and in an attempt to produce fuel rods for the aging US-built Tehran Research Reactor, which produces medical isotopes. All production has been under IAEA supervision and the IAEA has reaffirmed repeatedly for several years that none of the civilian enriched uranium had been diverted to any military purposes.
Despite this, Israel and the United States continue to maintain that the uranium enrichment is part of a nuclear weapons plot. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the latest reports to attack planned negotiations with Iran, saying that while the P5+1 decides where to hold a meeting Iran is “advancing toward obtaining a nuclear bomb.”