ALEPPO, Syria, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) — Young Talek could never have imaged he would lie in a hospital bed badly injured, when he went out to buy Arabic bread on a warm and sunny morning. Despite the eleven-month old turmoil, Syria’s northern city of Aleppo where Ahmed lives had remained largely peaceful until two strong blasts rattled the city on Friday, claiming at least 28 lives and wounding another 235.
“I saw a black vehicle carrying a plate of Idlib province run into the military intelligence building before I was hurt by explosion,” Ahmed told reporters, while his mother was weeping by his bedside. He was referring to the blast that hit the Military Intelligence Directorate in the New Aleppo area.
When the explosion occurred, groups of children were having picnic with their families in a nearby park. Talek’s description on the black vehicle could not be independently verified. Xinhua reporters saw the outer and interior of the building totally destroyed, with all windows shattered, fragments of furniture and stationery scattering on the ground and posters of President Bashar al-Assad still hanging on the blackened wall.
With the road leading to the blast site shut down by the police, search and rescue teams were busy clearing the debris and searching for bodies and possible lives. The second blast hit the headquarters of law-enforcement force in densely-populated Arkoub neighborhood, 8 km from the intelligence building, flattening a police parking lot and destroying almost all cars there.
An unnamed government source told Xinhua that a 24-seat white bus loaded with 300 kg explosives ran into the parking lot and caused the blast. Xinhua reporters saw a three-meter wide and two-meter deep crater at the scene. The blood-stained ground was dotted with helmets and police batons. A charred bus could also be seen, with series of gunshots clearly heard from not afar.
The state-run al-Razi hospital was crowded with injured people, while citizens of Aleppo rushed to donate their blood after hearing the sad news. Syrian Minister of Health Wael al-Halki said the toll is poised to rise due to the critical condition of some of the injured, adding the ministry has a strategic storage of medicine necessary for emergency cases, according to the official SANA news agency.
No one has claimed responsibility so far, but the government blamed the blasts on armed groups backed by foreign plots, and a research is underway. The blasts were the first to hit Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and economic hub, which has been relatively calm since the anti-government movement erupted in mid-March last year. The Syrian government said more than 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed during the months-long unrest, while the United Nations put the death toll in the country at more than 5,400. (Xinhua)
