Fierce fighting erupts at Syria's Aleppo prison

Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes on Wednesday fought to repel an attack on the central prison in Aleppo after rebels blew up its walls in suicide car bombings, activists said. Around 4,000 prisoners including Islamists and common law criminals are held in the prison on the outskirts of the northern city, which is largely under rebel control, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Regime forces fired tank shells and launched air raids around the jail to repel the rebel attack, igniting fire and damaging neighbouring houses, the Observatory said. It said a child was killed and seven members of a family were wounded in the bombings, it added, citing activists on the ground. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground, also reported clashes in the central province of Hama and on the international highway in Damascus. Elsewhere, violent clashes were reported in Idlib province of northwest Syria and in Daraa in the south. In more than two years of conflict, neither side has registered a decisive victory on the ground. More than 94,000 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the Observatory.