Blasts hit security HQs in Syrian city, 28 die
Source: Agencies |
February 11, 2012, Saturday
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TWO explosions struck security compounds in the Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday, killing 28 people and wounding 235, state media reported.
The blasts, in a major city that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, come as escalating violence between government forces and an increasingly militarized opposition has raised fears the conflict is spiraling toward civil war.
A Syrian offensive aimed at crushing rebels in the battered city of Homs continued yesterday, with soldiers who have been bombarding the city for the past six days making their first ground move to seize one of the most restive neighborhoods.
State TV blamed terrorists for the blasts in Aleppo - the first significant violence in Syria's largest city - saying they were proof the government is facing a violent enemy.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.
Mangled, bloodied bodies as well as severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the targeted buildings, as shown in live footage on Syrian television. Outside one of the compounds hit, the Military Intelligence Directorate, a weeping correspondent on state-run TV showed graphic footage of at least five corpses, collected in sacks and under blankets by the side of a road.
The correspondent lifted blankets and plastic sheets which had been laid over corpses on the pavement to show a body with its head blown off. Other bloodied human remains included a limbless torso and a severed foot. "We apologize for showing these pictures, but this is the terrorism which is targeting us," the reporter said.
Private Addounia Television said 11 civilians and security force members were killed in the explosion at a military security building and six more at a base for security forces. State television later quoted the Health Ministry saying a total of 28 were killed and 235 wounded in the two blasts.
A concrete wall around one building was badly damaged and its windows were blown out. At least one car appeared blackened and destroyed and several more were damaged.
The Aleppo blasts were the latest in a string of bombings that the government has blamed on the opposition, which denies any role. On January 6, a suicide attack in the capital Damascus killed 26 people. Two weeks earlier, 44 people were killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus.
The assault on Homs began last Saturday after unconfirmed reports that army defectors and other armed opponents of Assad were setting up their own checkpoints and taking control of some areas.
Yesterday, soldiers backed by tanks pushed into the neighborhood of Inshaat. Mohammed Saleh, a Syria-based activist, said the government appears to be trying to take over rebel-held areas in Homs and the northwestern restive province of Idlib before February 17, when Assad's ruling Baath party is scheduled to hold its first general conference since 2005.
The blasts, in a major city that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, come as escalating violence between government forces and an increasingly militarized opposition has raised fears the conflict is spiraling toward civil war.
A Syrian offensive aimed at crushing rebels in the battered city of Homs continued yesterday, with soldiers who have been bombarding the city for the past six days making their first ground move to seize one of the most restive neighborhoods.
State TV blamed terrorists for the blasts in Aleppo - the first significant violence in Syria's largest city - saying they were proof the government is facing a violent enemy.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.
Mangled, bloodied bodies as well as severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the targeted buildings, as shown in live footage on Syrian television. Outside one of the compounds hit, the Military Intelligence Directorate, a weeping correspondent on state-run TV showed graphic footage of at least five corpses, collected in sacks and under blankets by the side of a road.
The correspondent lifted blankets and plastic sheets which had been laid over corpses on the pavement to show a body with its head blown off. Other bloodied human remains included a limbless torso and a severed foot. "We apologize for showing these pictures, but this is the terrorism which is targeting us," the reporter said.
Private Addounia Television said 11 civilians and security force members were killed in the explosion at a military security building and six more at a base for security forces. State television later quoted the Health Ministry saying a total of 28 were killed and 235 wounded in the two blasts.
A concrete wall around one building was badly damaged and its windows were blown out. At least one car appeared blackened and destroyed and several more were damaged.
The Aleppo blasts were the latest in a string of bombings that the government has blamed on the opposition, which denies any role. On January 6, a suicide attack in the capital Damascus killed 26 people. Two weeks earlier, 44 people were killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus.
The assault on Homs began last Saturday after unconfirmed reports that army defectors and other armed opponents of Assad were setting up their own checkpoints and taking control of some areas.
Yesterday, soldiers backed by tanks pushed into the neighborhood of Inshaat. Mohammed Saleh, a Syria-based activist, said the government appears to be trying to take over rebel-held areas in Homs and the northwestern restive province of Idlib before February 17, when Assad's ruling Baath party is scheduled to hold its first general conference since 2005.
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