Syrian Observatory: Blasts Target Security Forces in Aleppo Province

Two explosions on Thursday struck security posts in the northern Syrian town of Aazaz, site of fierce clashes between government and rebel troops, a monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that one blast targeted an intelligence office and the second a police station.

"There were fierce clashes afterwards between Syrian forces and rebel troops," the Observatory added.

Mohamed al-Halabi, an activist in Aleppo, told Agence France Presse in Beirut by telephone that the rebel Free Syrian Army was behind the blasts in the town located in the province of Aleppo, near the Turkish border.

"Aazaz was subjected all day yesterday to intense shelling by Syrian forces and rebel troops retaliated and then blew up the two security posts," he said.

He said several anti-regime demonstrations were held Wednesday evening in a number of Aleppo neighborhoods.

He added that security forces at dawn on Thursday raided several districts of the city, the second largest in the country, and arrested dozens of people.