Video has emerged of a massive explosion on Thursday that leveled the Carlton Hotel in Aleppo, Syria. The hotel was used as a military base by Syrian government troops, according to state media and activist groups, The New York Times reports.
A Syrian state TV report identified the site as the Carlton Hotel. Several other buildings were also destroyed.
The U.K.–based activist monitoring network Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel fighters from the Islamic Front group planted massive amounts of explosives in a tunnel they dug below the Carlton and detonated them remotely, according to Al-Jazeera.
The explosion came three months after a video posted to YouTube showed rebels digging tunnels under the Carlton. The video then showed a large explosion, which partially destroyed the hotel.
According to Al-Jazeera, the men in the video are saying: "This is old Aleppo, you are going to see wonders, a 75-meter tunnel. The heroes of the Islamic Front have been digging this tunnel.
"We can be 100 percent sure that we are under the Carlton Hotel.… Today we will put the explosives."
The authenticity of the most recent footage could not be immediately confirmed, and no word on how many casualties there may be has been given, according to The New York Times. Government forces have used the Ottoman-period hotel as a base for two years.
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