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Syria unrest: Explosions rock northern city of Aleppo Syria unrest: Explosions in Aleppo 'kill 25'
(about 1 hour later)
Two explosions have rocked Syria's second city of Aleppo, causing a number of casualties, state media report. At least 25 people have been killed by explosions outside security forces compounds in Syria's second city of Aleppo, state media report.
State television blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the attacks, which it said hit a military intelligence complex and a security force base. State television said the death toll included both civilians and members of the security forces and blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the blasts.
Meanwhile, Syrian opposition activists quoted residents of Aleppo as saying that there had been three explosions. But opposition activists said the government was behind the violence.
Aleppo has been relatively quiet since mass protests against President Bashar al-Assad's erupted in March. Residents of the city of Homs meanwhile say tanks are massed outside several opposition-held districts.
"Civilians and members of the military were martyred and wounded in the terrorist explosions," state TV said. Overnight, tanks entered the eastern district of Inshaat, next to the protest centre of Baba Amr, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It also showed graphic images of aftermath of the bombings. There was also sporadic shelling throughout the city during the morning.
The blasts came as more than 100 people were reportedly killed in the central city of Homs on Thursday, as the government continued a push aimed at crushing rebel forces. Activists say the intense bombardment of many parts of Homs by security forces since Saturday has left more than 400 people dead. US President Barack Obama has condemned the "outrageous bloodshed".
Hundreds have been reported killed in the offensive over the past week. The opposition has called for nationwide protests on Friday to denounce Russia's veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling on President Bashar al-Assad's government to stop killing its own people.
US President Barack Obama has described the mortar and rocket attacks on residential areas of Homs as "outrageous bloodshed". Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the opposition "bore full responsibility" because it had refused to begin talks with the government and accused the West of being an "accomplice".
Syria restricts access to foreign media and casualty figures cannot be independently verified. 'Suspicious activity'
The government of Mr Assad says it is fighting terrorists and armed criminal gangs. Syrian state TV broadcast images showing at least five corpses and mangled body parts after what it said were two bombings outside a Military Intelligence compound and a police station in Aleppo on Friday.
A weeping TV reporter said one of the bombs went off near a park, where people had gathered for breakfast and children had been playing.
Some children were killed in the blast, he said, holding up a roller-blade.
Bulldozers could be seen in the TV footage clearing debris that filled the street, and nearby residential buildings appeared to have had their windows shattered.
"Civilians and members of the military were martyred and wounded in the terrorist explosions that targeted Aleppo,'' the channel reported.
The channel showed similar footage from the site of the second explosion, which the reporter said was the result of a car bomb.
The blast left a crater several metres wide in the road, blew a lorry onto its side, and hurled chunks of concrete over a wide area.
State TV later quoted the health ministry as saying that 25 people had been killed and 175 wounded as a result of the attacks.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that there had been two explosions, after earlier reporting that residents had told the group that there had been three.
They said suspicious activity by security personnel had been noticed shortly before the blasts, and accused the government of trying to discredit the uprising.
Aleppo, a mercantile city, has seen only minor protests and relatively little violence since the uprising against President al-Assad erupted in March, which human rights groups say has left more than 7,000 civilians dead.
On 6 January, 26 people were killed in what officials said was a suicide bombing in Damascus. Two weeks earlier, 44 reportedly died in twin suicide bomb attacks targeting security compounds in the capital.
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