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Gunmen attack Syria’s ruling party branch in Aleppo, killing security agent

12 May 2012 01:49 (UTC +04:00)

Bak-APA. Unidentified gunmen hurled a handmade grenade at the building of the ruling al-Baath party’s branch in northern Aleppo province Friday, killing a security agent and causing property losses, local media said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The building’s guards fired back at the assailants, said the report without any further details.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber was shot dead by security forces when he was trying to detonate a booby-trapped minibus in the al-Sha’ar area in Aleppo.

The minibus was stuffed with some 1,400 kilograms of explosives. Military sources said that had the minibus exploded, hundreds of people would have been killed.

Aleppo has recently joined the unrest seen by other restive provinces in the country. The province had maintained relative calm in the early months of the crisis that broke out more than a year ago.

The Syrian government blames the unrest on armed and extremist groups backed by foreign plot. It says that more than 2,500 military personnel have been killed during the turmoil.

However, the UN puts the death toll at more than 9,000, attributing the hefty toll on the government’s alleged bloody crackdown on opposition groups.