Aleppo hotel destroyed in explosion

A huge explosion on Thursday leveled a hotel in the Syrian city of Aleppo that government troops were using as a military base, according to the state news agency and opposition activists. 

The explosion struck the Carlton Hotel, which faces Aleppo’s 13th century citadel — a UNESCO World Heritage site — on the edge of a neighborhood that has seen fierce gun battles between Syria’s rebels and government forces.

Fourteen Syrian troops and pro-regime militiamen were killed in the blast and ensuing clashes with rebels, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring network based in London with sources on the ground in Aleppo. Several other buildings in the historic Old City were also reportedly destroyed.

The observatory said rebel fighters belonging to the Islamic Front, a coalition of Islamist rebel factions, planted explosives in a tunnel they dug below the hotel, detonating it remotely. In a video uploaded to YouTube on Thursday by opposition news outlet Aleppo News, fighters are shown walking through the underground tunnel, which one fighter said was 425 feet long and culminated at the Carlton Hotel.

A spokesman for the Islamic Front claimed credit for the explosion in a Skype interview with Al Jazeera and said the blast had killed dozens of government soldiers.

The Carlton, a luxury hotel popular with tourists to Aleppo's historic Old City, was similarly targeted by the group just three months ago. In a video that surfaced on YouTube in February, rebels who identify as “heroes of the Islamic Front” crawl through a tunnel under the Carlton. The video then shows the large explosion that partially destroyed the hotel.

The men in the video are heard saying: "This is old Aleppo, you are going to see wonders, a 75-meter [246-foot] tunnel. The heroes of the Islamic Front have been digging this tunnel ... today we will place the explosives."

In a separate development on Thursday, a video uploaded to YouTube on Thursday showed the release of several dozen Syrian soldiers by rebel fighters in Aleppo. They were released as part of a deal struck to allow rebels to withdraw from Homs, where they had been barricaded for two years under constant regime shelling.

The Syrian soldiers "have been released in response to the evacuation of our brothers in Homs, those who have been besieged for more than two years, and who have nothing left to eat," the rebel commander said in the video. "We hope that we've done something for our people in Homs, the heart of the revolt.

But, he said, "This is not a victory for the regime ... All the besieged areas have become ashes. There is nothing left in Homs. I consider it a victory for the rebels. They have been evacuated with their weapons and to the areas they have chosen."

Wednesday was one of the bloodiest days in Aleppo during Syria’s three-year civil war, which has killed more than 150,000 and displaced over 9 million people. As many as 60 fighters were killed in clashes in Syria’s largest city and the surrounding suburbs.

Many of Aleppo's heritage sites, which once attracted tourists from across the world, now lay in ruins. The Umayyad mosque was badly damaged in fighting last April, while large portions of Aleppo's vast covered market have been reduced to rubble.

Michael Pizzi contributed reporting, with wire services.