Syrian activists say fighting in Aleppo kills 4

A suicide attacker in a parked car blew himself up in an area housing security offices in northeastern Syria on Sunday, killing at least four people, state media said.
Syrian state television and the country's official news agency also said scores were wounded in the mid-afternoon blast in Qamishli, 700 kilometers from the capital, Damascus. The agency said the explosion, which also damaged nearby buildings, was carried out by a "terrorist suicide bomber."
 
Activists put the death toll at eight and said it was expected to rise because 15 people sustained "serious wounds." The blast targeted a police station in the city, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
 
The explosion came hours after activists said fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces killed at least five people in the embattled northern city of Aleppo.

The dead included a man who has been shot by a sniper near the city's medieval citadel. Several homes were also destroyed in the violence, it said.

It was the worst blow yet to the city's historic center and to a UNESCO World Heritage site in Syria.               

The heightened violence in Aleppo drew criticism from the city's industrialists of "insufficient" government protection provided to factories and other businesses in the area.                      

Elsewhere in Syria, the Observatory for Human Rights said a "strong explosion" rattled the northeastern city of Qamishli on the Turkish border.                

It said the explosion appeared to be caused by a booby-trapped car but that it was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties. 

International Positions:

Iraq will ask Syria-bound Iranian planes passing through its airspace to land for random inspections after Washington said they could be ferrying arms to Damascus, the Iraqi foreign minister said in an interview.

For his part, Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi mentioned that Egypt will not rest before toppling the Syrian Leadership which is killing its people.

Morsi didn’t explain the steps that Egypt could take to topple Bashar Assad’s leadership.


AP/REUTERS/LBCI

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