Middle East News

25 killed in twin bombings in Syrian city of Aleppo

Feb 10, 2012, 13:57 GMT

A handout photo released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows damaged military vehicles at one of bombing scenes that targeted security compounds in Aleppo, Syria, 10 February 2012. EPA/SANA/

Beirut - Twin bombings Friday ripped through two security facilities in the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 25 people and wounding 175, according to Syrian Health Ministry.

The attack, which state media blamed on 'terrorist gangs,' were the first in Aleppo that has so far showed support for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad despite some anti-government protests since the uprising started in mid-March.

Syrian state television said two suicide bombers had carried out the attack.

The Syrian opposition accused the regime of masterminding the bombings allegedly to tarnish the rebels' image.

The head of the dissident Syrian Free Army, Colonel Riad al-Assad, denied his comrades were involved in the attack.

'The Syrian Free Army does not carry out such attacks. It is the regime which perpetrates such criminal acts,' he told the Dubai-based broadcaster Al Arabiya.

Friday's attack was the third of its kind in Syria in three months. Two bombings in December and January killed more than 70 people, according to government figures.

State television showed footage of human flesh among the rubble of buildings hit in Friday's blasts.

The broadcaster said the bombings had occurred near a park and many children were killed in the attack.

The explosions were reported as the government forces pressed ahead with an onslaught on restive areas in the central province of Homs, activists in the area told dpa.

The forces bombarded on Friday the districts of Baba Amr, al-Khalidiyeh and al-Bayada, killing at least 30 people, added the activists.

'Dozens of the regime soldiers are now in the district of Inshaat conducting house-to-house searches and intimidating the people staying in their houses despite heavy shelling of the area on Thursday,' Omar Homsi, a Syrian activist told dpa from the area of Kussair in Homs.

Inshaat is a hub of anti-government protests in Homs, say activists.

Some 755 people have been killed in the government assault on Homs over the last six days, according to the opposition Local Coordination committees.

Naji Tayyara, the head of the foreign affairs department at the Opposition National Syrian Council, said the deaths included 70 children.

He appealed to humanitarian groups to offer immediate medical help to the province.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army deployed en mass on Friday near its northern border with Syria over reports that arms were being smuggled to rebels into Homs, a Lebanese Army source told dpa.

A resident in the Lebanese border area of Wadi Khaled said some wounded Syrians from Homs had illegally entered the area for medical treatment.

'Seven injured people managed to enter. One died while the others are being treated in hospitals of the area,' he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Since the uprising erupted in Syria last March, an estimated 5,000 Syrians have taken refuge in northern Lebanon.