U.S. Declines to Blame Any Party for Damascus University Attack
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said late Thursday it remained unclear who was behind a mortar attack that left at least 15 students dead at Damascus University, after Syrian state media blamed "terrorists."
But she urged both sides to be "absolutely vigilant in avoiding attacks on civilians and to ensure that their actions are in accordance with international law."
The Damascus University attack came as battles raged between insurgents and loyalist troops in districts on the edges of the city, and as warplanes targeted rebel enclaves in Irbin and other towns east of the capital.
"A total of 15 students were killed in a mortar attack launched by terrorists targeting the architecture faculty," said Damascus University dean Amer Mardini, quoted by the official SANA news agency.
The regime uses the term "terrorists" for rebels who are increasingly targeting President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power.
SANA said six other people were wounded by mortars targeting the faculty cafeteria.
Pro-regime al-Ikhbariya television ran footage of a bloodied patio filled with broken glass and upturned chairs, and showed doctors treating seriously wounded young people, some of them unconscious.
The national student union denounced the "cowardly terrorist attack that targeted the architecture faculty of Damascus University," state television said.
Rebels battling Assad's regime have stepped up mortar attacks on central Damascus this year, including Umayyad Square which houses state television's headquarters.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group that relies on sources on the ground for its information, called for an immediate end to mortar attacks on Damascus.
"The vast majority of people killed in the mortar attacks on Damascus have been civilians," its director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.
Source: Agence France Presse
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