Suicide blasts at Syria military base kill dozens: NGO

The attack, the latest in a spate of assaults on Syrian military and government installations, was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, which said it was to avenge Muslims "oppressed or killed" by the regime.

News of the blasts came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged President Bashar al-Assad's regime to declare a unilateral truce in the almost 19-month conflict which activists say has killed more than 32,000 people.

"Dozens of people were killed in two suicide attacks against the air force intelligence branch in Harasta" late on Monday, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, referring to a town just northeast of the capital.

"The fate of hundreds of prisoners being held in the basements of the (building) is still unknown. "The regime has not said a word about what happened last night," added Abdel Rahman.

"I hold the regime responsible for the fate of the prisoners. They shouldn't be holding all of these people in the first place." The Al-Nusra Front, which was unknown before the start of the revolt against Assad's regime but which now regularly issues statements claiming suicide attacks in Syria, said it was behind the Harasta attack.

"In revenge for those who have oppressed or killed Muslims, the decision was taken to strike the Air Force intelligence branch in Harasta," Al-Nusra said in a statement posted on jihadist online forums. The group described a three-phase operation in which a suicide bomber drove a car loaded with 9t of explosives to the front of the building, and 25 minutes later, another fighter drove through in a booby-trapped ambulance.

The militants then targeted the area with mortars, according to the statement. The attack sparked intense fighting in Harasta between rebels and the army, which at daybreak pounded the town with shells, the Britain-based Observatory said.

It said Syrian forces on Tuesday also rained shells down on rebel belts in the second city of Aleppo, which has been fiercely contested since mid-July, and in Idlib province near the Turkish border.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge