Syria's Aleppo university latest target of deadly blasts
Violence comes after foreign deputy says Assad is determined to contest election next year
Two explosions struck the main university in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday, causing a still unknown number of casualties.
The violence came a day after Syria's deputy foreign minister said President Bashar al-Assad will not step down before scheduled presidential elections next year. Faisal Mekdad said Assad would run again, a declaration that lowers already diminished expectations that a political settlement can be reached.
There were conflicting reports as to what caused the blast at Aleppo University.
State TV said two rockets hit the university, killing students and people who had fled fighting elsewhere in recent months and taken refuge on the campus grounds. It did not say how many people were killed, and blamed rebels for the attack.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around the country, offered a slightly different account. It said 15 people were killed and "tens" wounded in two explosions near the university's dorms. But it said it was not clear whether the blasts were the result of shells or bombs.
Aleppo, a former commercial hub, has been a major front in the country's civil war since July. Since then, the fight in Syria's largest city has settled into a bloody stalemate between regime troops and rebels, with ferocious street battles, sniper fire and frequent exchanges of rocket and mortar rounds.