Blasts hit Syrian security
April 30, 2012The explosions on Monday appeared to have hit near state security offices in the city of Idlib, 325 kilometers (200 miles) away from Damascus, Syrian opposition members said.
"The bombs exploded next to the Air Force Intelligence headquarters and the Military Intelligence building," Rami Abdelrahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
Syria's state news agency, SANA, said the explosions killed at least eight people and wounded nearly 100. State television said the blasts were caused by "terrorists," a term the state media uses for the rebels trying to overthrow the government.
A fragile UN-backed cease-fire between rebels and the government of President Bashar al-Assad has been in effect in Syria for the past two weeks, though it has been violated repeatedly.
The head of a UN team of observers, Norwegian Major General Richard Mood, arrived in Damascus on Sunday and called for both sides in the conflict to put an end to the violence.
ncy/mz (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)