Syria rebels blow up Aleppo hotel turned army base

Syrian rebels blew up a luxury hotel turned army base in the historic heart of Aleppo on Thursday after tunnelling under the front line that divides the northern city.

State television gave no word on any casualties from the attack that levelled the famed Carlton Citadel Hotel just across the road from the city’s Unesco-listed Citadel.

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were dead and wounded among government troops occupying the building.

“The explosion that was heard in Aleppo’s Old City was caused by explosives planted by Islamist battalions in a tunnel beneath the Carlton hotel, which was occupied by regime troops,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.