40 Rebels Dead in Aleppo Regime Raid as Man Killed in Damascus Shelling
At least 40 rebels were killed as a regime air strike on their base in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo triggered a huge explosion Thursday, a monitoring group said.
The Islamist rebels had shells stored at the base, which magnified the blast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
"The shells exploded when the strike happened, and witnesses there described an explosion like an earthquake," Abdel Rahman said.
"At least 40 rebels from Islamist factions, including three leaders, were killed when Syria's army dropped a barrel bomb and fired a rocket on their base in al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo city," the Britain-based Observatory said.
Al-Shaar falls within opposition-controlled east Aleppo city, which is regularly bombarded by regime warplanes and helicopters.
Abdel Rahman said the fighters targeted were part of the Northern Front, a coalition of Islamist factions formed in December.
The regime's use of barrel bombs -- old containers full of explosives -- has been criticized by human rights groups for its indiscriminate nature.
Meanwhile, mortar rounds fell near the Russian embassy in the Syrian capital on Thursday, killing one person, in the second such attack this week, the Observatory said.
The monitoring group said the unidentified man died after "two mortar rounds struck near the Russian embassy in the Mazraa neighborhood" of Damascus.
Citing a high-ranking police official, Syria's official SANA news agency reported that "terrorists targeted the residential Mazraa neighborhood with two mortar shells, which killed one person and wounded three others."
It said there was damage to homes, cars and shops.
A mortar attack on the Russian embassy on Tuesday had caused property damage but no casualties.
Russia's foreign ministry said the source of Tuesday's mortar fire "seemed to come from the Jobar area, which is under the control of illegitimate armed groups."
Moscow is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The U.N. Security Council condemned Tuesday's attack, with Lithuania's U.N. ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite saying "considerable damage" had been done to buildings.
Source: Agence France Presse
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