* Syria's conflict, now in third year, destroying heritage
* Rebels, government trade blame for minaret's collapse (Recasts with collapse of Aleppo minaret, adds reports of fighting on coast)
BEIRUT, April 24 (Reuters) - The 1,000-year-old minaret of Aleppo's Umayyad Mosque has collapsed due to clashes between Syrian rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, activists and state media said on Wednesday.
Syria's civil war has cost more than 70,000 lives and has also damaged or destroyed many archaeological and architectural treasures, some of them United Nations world heritage sites, such as Aleppo's Old City where the mosque is located.
The opposing parties blamed the other for the toppling of the minaret, which predated the medieval-era mosque it stood in. Fighting has ravaged the Old City's stone-vaulted alleyways for months and had already reduced much of the mosque to rubble.
State news agency SANA accused the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-linked rebel group, of bringing down the minaret. Opposition groups said army tank fire was to blame.
The conflict in Syria, now in its third year, threatens ancient castles and Roman ruins across the country.
Islamist rebel units said on Wednesday they had launched an offensive on the coastal province of Latakia, a move which could further stoke sectarian tensions in a war that has increasingly divided the country along religious and ethnic lines.
The coast is a stronghold of Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Alawites have dominated Syria's power structures during four decades of Assad family rule.
Rebels, mostly from the Sunni Muslim majority, have seized territory in northern and southern Syria, and hold about half of Aleppo, the country's biggest city. But Assad's forces have kept control of the capital Damascus and other main cities.
Islamist fighters said they had fired two rockets that hit the town of Qurdaha, the birthplace and burial site of Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years.
It is impossible to verify the claim due to government restrictions on media access in Syria.
MORTARS HIT DAMASCUS SUBURB
In Damascus, two mortar bombs hit a government-held suburb, killing seven people and wounding more than 25, activists and state media said. SANA blamed the attack on "terrorists", the term it commonly uses to describe Assad's armed opponents.
No group claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, which SANA said had hit a municipality office and a school building in Jaramana, a pro-Assad suburb controlled by the army but surrounded by rebel-held areas.
Rebels have seized suburbs around southern and eastern Damascus, but have been struggling to maintain their hold against fierce army shelling and air strikes in recent weeks.
Nevertheless, opposition fighters have stepped up mortar fire and assassination attacks in the heart of the capital. They have been trying for months to create a route into Damascus from Jaramana, but have been repelled by local pro-Assad militias.
SANA said an electricity ministry official was killed in central Damascus on Wednesday by a bomb planted in his car.
Such attacks on government officials draw wide support from rebels, but some say civilian areas should be spared. A rebel unit in Damascus condemned the mortar fire on Jaramana.
"We offer our full condolences to the victims and the families of Jaramana. We call on the Lord Almighty to accept them as martyrs," the Saad bin Abada al-Khudraji battalion said.
"Our brigade loudly condemns these criminal acts, which have nothing to do with Islam in any way." (Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
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