Pentagon chief says Al Qaeda has a presence in Syria

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Thursday (May 10) that he had no information if Al Qaeda had any involvement in two suicide car bombings that killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus.Syrias foreign ministry said the attacks were a sign that the major Arab state was facing foreign-backed terrorism and urged the U.N. Security Council to combat countries or groups supporting such violence.When asked at a Pentagon news conference if the United States believed Al Qaeda was involved in the attack, Panetta responded, I have no information to that effect - as to whether or not theyre involved there. Obviously, the situation in Syria remains of a great concern. The ceasefire does not appear to be working, and Annan himself has indicated concerns about whether or not parties are abiding by the ceasefire. We continue to urge Assad to step down.There must be a change there. Theyve lost their legitimacy by huge number of deaths that are taking place in Syria. And again, we are working with the international community to try to make sure we take all steps necessary to try to do what we can to implement the necessary political reforms, to have Assad step down, and to try to return Syria to the Syrian people. This is not easy. There are no easy courses here, but I think the most important thing we can do now is to continue to work with the international community to bring pressure on Syria to do the right thing.The US defense secretary did acknowledge Al Qaedas presence in Syria.Al Qaeda anywhere is a concern for us, and we do have intelligence that indicates that there is an Al Qaeda presence in Syria. But frankly, we dont have very good intelligence as to just exactly what their activities are. And thats the reason we cant really indicate specifically what they are or not doing, but they are a concern, and frankly, we need to continue to do everything we can to determine what kind of influence theyre trying to exert there.