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The host names were unresolvable at 2100 11/29/2012, so we could not try a traceroute. PingER does collect traceroutes on a daily basis. The traceroutes for Nov. 28th indicate both host have the same route until hop (there is no information beyond this hop). The route passes from SLAC (in Menlo Park, CA) to ESnet (in Sunnyvale) to Equinix onto BTN in London and ending at iNET in Syria.
The IP address of iNET (91.144.8) belongs to the Autonomous System (AS) EXT-PDN-STE-AS Syrian Telecommunications Establishment
A Google map of Damascus showing the two sites (green balloons) and identifying the Thawra host is shown below; 