|
Aleppo:
Two explosions have struck Aleppo University in northern Syria,
killing more than 80 people, official sources and opposition
activists said. There were conflicting reports as to what caused
the blast yesterday, with the government and opposition blaming
each other. The explosions set cars ablaze and blew the walls off
dormitory rooms.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited students
and medical officials as saying that 83 people were killed in the
explosions near the university's dorms. More than 150 people were
injured, several of them in critical condition, the group said,
without giving details about the cause of the explosions, Al Jazeera reported.
Other anti-regime activists said
missiles fired by government jets caused the blasts. A witness
told Al Jazeera that she saw bombs falling from the sky.
Bashar Jaafari, Syria's envoy to the
United Nations, called the attack "a cowardly terrorist act that
targeted the students of Aleppo University as they sat for their
midterm examinations."
Meanwhile, state television said two
rockets hit the university, killing students and people who had
fled fighting elsewhere in recent months and taken refuge on the
campus grounds. It blamed rebels for the attack.
Mohammed Wahid Akkad, the governor of the city, gave similar
casualty figures to those cited by the Observatory.
"So far there are 82 fatalities and
more than 160 wounded in a terrorist attack that targeted students
on their first day of exams at the University of Aleppo," Akkad
told the AFP news agency.
As well as students, the campus
houses about 30,000 people who have fled homes in areas of the
city ravaged by fighting since July last year.
A military official in Aleppo told
AFP that the explosion occurred after rebels tried to shoot down a
warplane with a missile, but failed to hit their target. Fighting
between rebels and government forces has reached a stalemate in
Aleppo and left the city divided.
The university is located in an area
under government control. Government troops and rebels frequently
exchange rockets and mortar rounds in the city.
Over recent months, Aleppo and the capital, Damascus, have been
hit by a wave of explosions that have killed scores of people.
Many of the bombings, which have largely targeted government
buildings, have been claimed by groups fighting to overthrow
President Bashar Al-Assad.
Elsewhere in Syria, troops and
rebels fought in embattled suburbs of Damascus on Tuesday, as
government air raids and shelling in the other regions killed
several dozen people, activists said.
|
Comments
|
Quick links