Bomb rocks Syrian capital; fighting reported in Aleppo
BEIRUT — A car bomb targeting a checkpoint near a military airport in an upscale neighborhood of the Syrian capital of Damascus killed 10 soldiers, activists said Monday, as President Bashar Assad’s troops pressed ahead with an offensive to regain territory lost to rebels trying to topple his government.
The army has scored major victories in key battlefields in western and central Syria in the past weeks and is now setting its sights on the country’s largest city, Aleppo, in the north, parts of which have been opposition strongholds.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, said 10 soldiers died in the attack Sunday night in Damascus’ Mazzeh area and 10 were wounded. The neighborhood houses several embassies and a military airport.
Syrian state media confirmed there was a blast near the military airport late Sunday but did not release any casualty figures.
At least 93,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since it erupted in March 2011, according to a recent United Nations estimate.
Earlier this month, Assad’s troops dealt a major blow to the opposition forces when they pushed the rebels out of the strategic town of Qusair with the help of Lebanon’s Shiite militant group, Hezbollah.
The Damascus government is now looking to keep the momentum going and aims to take back control of Aleppo, the country’s commercial hub. The rebels captured parts of the city last summer.
Troops clashed with rebels inside Aleppo and in the city’s outskirts on Monday, the Observatory said. It also reported an airstrike on the village of Douweirina, a stronghold of an Al Qaeda-affiliated group fighting on the opposition’s side.
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