At least 25 people were killed and scores injured as explosions rocked Syria's second largest city of Aleppo on Friday, marking escalation of violence to relatively peaceful regions of the strife-torn Middle East country.
Syria's state television said the dead included both civilians and security personnel. Images it beamed showed at least five corpses and mangled body parts after what it said were two bombings outside a Military Intelligence compound and a police station in Aleppo, a major city that so far stood with beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad in the 11 months of unrest.
The Opposition had called for nationwide protests on Friday to denounce the Russia-China veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on the Assad regime to stop killing of its own people and call back troops to their barracks.
The TV channel said the bombs targeting buildings of the intelligence department went off near a park, where people had gathered for breakfast and children had been playing. The casualties included children.
Another footage aired by the channel showed the site of the second explosion, which it said was caused by a suicide car bombing. The blast left a large crater and hurled crumbled masonry over a wide area. Emergency workers were shown collecting dismembered body parts from the scene.
Quoting the Health Ministry, the state broadcaster reported that 25 people were killed and 175 wounded in the attacks.
Meanwhile, reports quoting residents of the city of Homs, focal point of the current unrest, said tanks and armored vehicles were mobilized outside several Opposition-held districts. Overnight, tanks entered the eastern district of Inshaat, next to the protest center of Baba Amr. Sporadic shelling throughout the city disturbed morning silence, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Activists say assault on the city by security forces since Saturday has left more than 400 people dead. While rights groups alleged hands of security forces behind Friday's bomb attacks in Aleppo, the government blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the blasts.
The U.N. estimates that more than 5,000 people have died since uprising against the Assad regime broke out in March last, but Opposition activists put the toll over 7,000.
Bashar al-Assad has been in power in Syria for the last 11 years since the death of his father Hafez al-Assad who ruled the Arab country for more than three decades.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.