At least 28 people were killed when two
explosions ripped through state security buildings in Aleppo yesterday,
widening Syria's conflict to a regime stronghold which has so far
escaped major unrest.
One of the blasts tore through a street
outside the city's Military Intelligence Directorate. Footage broadcast
by state television showed rubble strewn over the road and five corpses
lying under blankets to one side of the street.
According to a state TV presenter, who was
filmed crying as the footage was beamed back, a number of children
playing in a nearby park were killed in the attack. It was not possible
to confirm the account.
The second blast hit a police headquarters in
another part of the city. State media said at least 175 people were
injured in the explosion.
The government blamed the blasts, the first
since three similar attacks hit Damascus in December and January,
killing dozens, on "terrorists". Opposition figures, however, accused
the Baathist regime of staging the incidents to try to undermine the
opposition.
The activists from the Local Coordinating
Committees, who have been working to spread word of the uprising against
the government of President Bashar al-Assad, claimed that security
forces opened fire and killed seven people after the blasts.
The claim was repeated by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Yesterday's carnage in Aleppo came as the
Syrian army continued to pound the besieged city of Homs with rocket and
tank fire. Activists described the scenes of bloodshed and mayhem as
President Assad's generals maintained their operation against rebel-held
neighbourhoods in the city.
One man, who called himself Yusef, told The
Independent he had been sick after visiting one of the makeshift field
hospitals which doctors and volunteers are using to treat the wounded.
"There was a woman there with no head," he said. "It had been blown off
her shoulders. I couldn't look at her."
Another, who said his name was Basel Fouad,
claimed there were still families trapped under the collapsed masonry of
battered apartment blocks. "When they attack a house, they don't just
hit it with one rocket. They hit the same house three or four times
until it is destroyed," he said.
Activists and rights groups say many hundreds
of people have been killed in Homs since the Syrian army launched its
latest offensive last week.
According to Syria expert Joshua Landis, the
ferocity of the Homs siege is a result of the anger being voiced among
some regime supporters – many of whom are drawn from the same Alawite
sect as President Assad – who feel the ruling elite's response to the
anti-government uprising has been ineffective. "His supporters are
saying he needs to smash the opposition," he said.
