Blasts Rock Aleppo as Dozens More Are Reported Killed in Syria
Explosions in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo struck two targets associated with the military and police early on Friday, Syrian state television reported, as the central city of Homs was reported to still be under siege with sporadic tank fire ripping into contested neighborhoods, pinning down residents in their homes.
State television said 28 people were killed and 235 injured in Aleppo in what seemed to be two car bombings.
One explosion erupted near a military intelligence directorate in Aleppo and the second at a police headquarters, state media reported, saying the blasts were the work of “terrorists.”
Activists said seven people were also killed in the city when troops fired on anti-government demonstrators drawn to the streets to protest Russia’s support of President Bashar al-Assad. Protesters said the theme of Friday’s demonstrations, which they hoped to stage nationwide, was “Russia is killing our children.”
Aleppo, Syria’s industrial center and most populous city, has been relatively quiet throughout the country’s 11-month-old uprising despite occasional demonstrations in recent weeks.
In the 1970s and 1980s, it was the scene of running battles between the government of President Hafez al-Assad, the current president’s father, and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Images broadcast from one security compound showed bloodied bodies strewn on the ground outside the shattered buildings. The force of the blast shattered windows, upended vehicles and twisted a black cast iron fence. The blasts left both scenes a jumble of concrete blocks and other wreckage.