Four mortar shells exploded on Tuesday in central Damascus, killing 14 people and wounding scores, state media said.
The
attacks in the Syrian capital come a day after President Bashar Assad
announced his candidacy for the June 3 presidential elections, a race he
is likely to win amid a raging civil war that initially started as an
uprising against his rule.
The official SANA
news agency said four shells struck in the capital's Shaghour
neighborhood on Tuesday morning. State TV said 14 people were killed in
the attacks and 86 were injured.
An official
at the Damascus Police Command told The Associated Press that two of the
mortar shells hit a school complex. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity in line with government regulations.
No
one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Rebels have
frequently fired mortars into the capital from opposition-held suburbs.
SANA
blamed the attacks on terrorists - a term used by Assad's government
for rebels fighting to oust him. Many of the opposition-held
neighborhoods around Damascus have been under a crippling government
blockade for months with no food and medicine allowed to reach trapped
civilians inside.
Tuesday's attacks occurred
just hours after an international rights organization accused Assad's
forces of indiscriminately targeting civilians and civilian
infrastructure with crude bombs in rebel-held districts of the northern
city of Aleppo.
Human Rights Watch said its
staff has documented 85 locations in Aleppo's opposition-held districts
that government aircraft shelled with barrel bombs - makeshift,
shrapnel-packed explosive devices rolled out of helicopters.
The
New York-based group identified the locations after interviewing
witnesses and analyzing satellite imagery and video and photographic
evidence, the report said.
The attacks in
Aleppo occurred between Feb. 22 and April 2. The locations, identified
by HRW, sustained damage that is "consistent with the detonation of
barrel bombs," the report said. The organization also has evidence that
government forces fired hundreds of mortar and heavy artillery shells
during those 40 days.
Aleppo, Syria's largest
city, has been carved up into rebel- and government-held neighborhoods
since the opposition launched an offensive in the north in mid-2012.
HRW
also criticized the opposition for firing mortars into populated,
residential areas, but the rebel groups said government forces are
behind most of the attacks that target residential areas and civilians.
The
U.N. Security Council is meeting on Wednesday to review whether Syria's
warring sides are complying with a resolution demanding the cessation
of the use of barrel bomb and other weapons in populated areas.
Syria's
conflict started as largely peaceful protests against Assad's rule in
March 2011. It turned into a civil war after some opposition supporters
took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent. More
than 150,000 have been killed, activists say, and millions have been
displaced by the fighting.
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