Twin blasts targeting security buildings killed more than 20 people in the northwest Syrian city of Idlib yesterday, a monitoring group said.
The violence, a day after the arrival of the chief of a United Nations monitoring mission, was sure to put further strain on a UN-backed ceasefire that went into effect on April 12 but has failed to take hold fully.
Most of those killed in Idlib were members of the security forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The blasts targeted two security headquarters, one housing air force intelligence and the other military intelligence,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
State news agency Sana said “terrorists” were behind the attacks by “suicide bombers.”
Syrian television put the death toll at nine, among them civilians, and said around 100 people were wounded in the two blasts in residential areas.
It broadcast footage of bloodstains on the ground, and groups of angry people denouncing the violence and expressing support for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“Is this the freedom they want?” shouted one man, standing near a woman who was carrying a child with blood running down his forehead.
One building appeared in ruins and cars nearby were flattened by the explosion.
Hours later a third blast rocked the city’s university neighbourhood, and the Britain-based Observatory said: “There are reports of wounded.” Sana said UN observers had gone to visit the scene of the morning explosions.
A powerful blast, probably a car bomb, was also reported in the suburb of Qudsiya near the capital Damascus, causing an unknown number of casualties, the Observatory added.
The explosion targeted a military vehicle, said Abdel Rahman.
“Initial reports indicate there are casualties,” he added. “But we cannot yet confirm the number of victims.”
An unknown number of civilians living near the site of the explosion were wounded, he added.
Overnight, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the central bank in Damascus, state media said, adding that an “armed terrorist group” carried out a second RPG attack on a police patrol outside a hospital in the city’s Rokn Eddin area. Four police were wounded.
And the Observatory said two civilians were killed on Monday – one by a sniper in a village in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and one in a town in the central province of Homs.
Troops were also reported searching for deserters in Kfar Nabal in Idlib province, and making arrests in the Deir Ezzor town of Quriya.
On Friday, a suicide car bomb in central Damascus killed 11 people.
Anti-regime activists have accused the government of being behind the series of explosions, while the authorities blame “terrorists.”
The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, said the RPG attacks in Damascus were “another trick” by the regime to justify its continued crackdown.
“The Assad regime is trying in various ways to mislead and distract (UN) observers in order to prevent them carrying out their work,” a statement said, calling for “an international commission of inquiry to uncover who was behind the explosions.”
Veteran peacekeeper Major General Robert Mood urged all sides on Sunday to abide by the ceasefire as he arrived to take command of the UN military observer mission overseeing the truce.
The peace plan, brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, calls for a commitment to stop all armed violence, a daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefire, media access to all areas affected by the fighting, an inclusive Syrian-led political process, a right to demonstrate and the release of detainees.
The United Nations estimates that more than 9,000 people have been killed since the revolt against Assad’s regime began last year.