Four Blasts in Aleppo Kill 40

Four separate explosions rocked the Syrian city of Aleppo today, claiming at least 40 lives and wounding more than 90 others in a government-controlled district where rebels have been clashing with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, reports Reuters by way of the country's state-run news agency. Three of the bombs went off in the city's main square in 15 minutes. A car bomb hundreds of meters away exploded shortly after.

"Five minutes after the first explosion a second bomb exploded. A third exploded 10 minutes after that," a state TV reporter said. "There was a fourth car bomb which exploded before engineering units could defuse it." Aleppo is now largely split in half between Assad forces and rebels, notes Reuters.