Blast hits state TV as 20,000 troops target Aleppo rebels

 
6 August 2012

A bomb ripped through the third floor of the state television building in the centre of Damascus today, wounding at least three staff.

The Syrian capital has seen a string of suicide attacks and other blasts in the past few months as the civil war has escalated.

A pro-government private TV station, Al-Ikhbariya, showed pictures of staff inspecting damage and tending to a wounded colleague. A BBC reporter in the capital said the explosion “ripped the floor” but transmission of state TV was unaffected.

In June, gunmen attacked the offices of al-Ikhbariya, south of Damascus, killing seven people.

More than 20,000 government troops are aiming to wrest control of Aleppo from rebels. Having surrounded the city, tanks have tried to push into two key rebel-held areas, Salah al-Din and Saif al-Dawla, which lie on the main road into town. A video has also been released showing 48 Iranians who were abducted in Damascus by opposition forces. The footage carried a warning that all Iranians in Syria would be “captured or killed” because of Tehran’s backing for President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebels claim the detainees are spies but Iran said they were pilgrims kidnapped from a bus during a trip to a Shia shrine.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in