Aleppo
(Syria): Three car bombs tore on Wednesday into the heart of Syria’s
second city Aleppo, killing 48 people, mostly troops, as the regime
launched an offensive against rebels near Damascus, a watchdog said.
Rebel fighters killed at least 15 soldiers, when they attacked military posts in the northwest of the country, triggering fierce clashes, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. And the bloodshed spilled across the Syrian border when several shells from the conflict crashed into the Turkish town of Akcakale, killing at least five people and wounding nine, witnesses said.
In Aleppo, two car bombs went off in quick succession around Saadallah al-Jabiri Square near a military officers’ club, ripping off part of a hotel’s facade and flattening a two-storey cafe.
A man, whose family owns a coffee shop overlooking the square, described the sound of the blasts as “terrifying”. “I ran to my parents’ room and found their faces covered in blood,” said the man, who identified himself only as Omar. “Most of the people rescued from under the rubble of the hotel were soldiers.”
A third bomb exploded soon afterwards at an entrance to the Old City in the nearby district of Bab Jnein, the Observatory and a military official said.
At least 48 people were killed and almost 100 wounded, the Britain-based Observatory said, citing medics. “Most of them were regime troops,” it added. An official in Aleppo put the toll at “37 dead and dozens injured.”
“We heard two enormous explosions, as though the gates of hell were opening,” Hassan, a 30-year-old employee of a nearby hotel, told AFP.
“I saw thick smoke, and I helped a woman on the pavement whose arms and legs were completely dislocated,” said Hassan, who gave only one name. AFP
Rebel fighters killed at least 15 soldiers, when they attacked military posts in the northwest of the country, triggering fierce clashes, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. And the bloodshed spilled across the Syrian border when several shells from the conflict crashed into the Turkish town of Akcakale, killing at least five people and wounding nine, witnesses said.
In Aleppo, two car bombs went off in quick succession around Saadallah al-Jabiri Square near a military officers’ club, ripping off part of a hotel’s facade and flattening a two-storey cafe.
A man, whose family owns a coffee shop overlooking the square, described the sound of the blasts as “terrifying”. “I ran to my parents’ room and found their faces covered in blood,” said the man, who identified himself only as Omar. “Most of the people rescued from under the rubble of the hotel were soldiers.”
A third bomb exploded soon afterwards at an entrance to the Old City in the nearby district of Bab Jnein, the Observatory and a military official said.
At least 48 people were killed and almost 100 wounded, the Britain-based Observatory said, citing medics. “Most of them were regime troops,” it added. An official in Aleppo put the toll at “37 dead and dozens injured.”
“We heard two enormous explosions, as though the gates of hell were opening,” Hassan, a 30-year-old employee of a nearby hotel, told AFP.
“I saw thick smoke, and I helped a woman on the pavement whose arms and legs were completely dislocated,” said Hassan, who gave only one name. AFP
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