Syria: Aleppo hit by four car bombs That was the biggest attack in the capital since July 18 when a bomb killed several senior security officials including Assad's brother-in-law, the defence minister and a general. Aleppo is now split in two with Assad's forces mainly in the west and rebels in the east. Several large protests in support of the president have been held in Saadallah al-Jabiri square. Pro-Assad al-Ikhbariya TV showed footage of four dead men, including one dust-covered body being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building and loaded onto the back of a pickup truck. Many of the multi-storey buildings on the square had their facades ripped off and there was a deep crater in the road. The British-based Observatory, which monitors the violence in Syria through a network of activists, said the explosions occurred next to an Officers Club. Footage showed sandbags near the bomb site. Fighting only with light weaponry, rebels have resorted to bomb attacks in areas still controlled by Assad. A pro-Assad Lebanese paper said on Tuesday that Assad was visiting Aleppo to take a first-hand look at the fighting and had ordered 30,000 more troops into the battle. It said Assad would remain in the city. Opposition activists say 30,000 people have been killed in the 18-month-old anti-Assad uprising, which has grown into a full-scale civil war. For much of the revolt, Assad has retained a grip on Aleppo with many rich merchants and minority groups there, fearful of instability, remaining neutral while protests spread.