Blood on tables and the floor in the cafeteria of the Architecture Faculty of Damascus University afer it was hit by a mortar attack yesterday.
BEIRUT: Fifteen Syrian students were killed when rebel mortar bombs hit a Damascus University canteen yesterday, state-run news agency SANA said, as attacks intensified in the centre of the capital.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, said a mortar killed 13 people at the university, without saying who fired the bombs.
Other activists confirmed the attack but no opposition group has denied or claimed responsibility.
Insurgents trying to end four decades of rule by the family of President Bashar Al Assad have formed a semi-circle around the capital and intensified attacks from positions on the outskirts this week.
A bastion for Assad’s forces, the capital city is a crucial prize in a two-year-old uprising that has developed into a war in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.
Another 1.2 million Syrians have also fled to neighbouring countries and North Africa, where they have registered as refugees or are awaiting processing, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
SANA said mortar rounds landed in a canteen at the College of Architecture in Baramkeh, a central district near several government buildings, including the Defence Ministry, the headquarters for state media and Assad’s official residence.
Pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV showed images of doctors trying to resuscitate at least two young men and blood on the floor of what appeared to be an outdoor canteen. A young woman was shown walking in a hospital, her face bleeding heavily.
SANA quoted the president of Damascus University as saying the death toll, initially put at 12, had risen to 15 in what state and pro-government media called a terrorist attack. Last weekend rebel groups sent out warnings on the Internet that they planned to intensify strikes on government and military sites in the city and warned residents they should leave to avoid what they called “Operation Shaking the Fort”.
REUTERS
