Twin bombings have struck intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital Damascus, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 100, according to state media.
State TV, quoting the health minister, said the death toll could rise. The state news agency, SANA, posted photographs of the scene, showing bloodstains on the streets and twisted steel.
"All our windows and doors are blown out," said Majed Seibiyah, 29, who lives in the area. "I was sleeping when I heard a sound like an earthquake. I didn't grasp what was happening until I heard screaming in the street."
The blasts were the latest in a string of large-scale bombing attacks targeting the Syrian regime's military installations but whose perpetrators remain a mystery. The previous blasts, all suicide bombings, killed dozens of people since December, even as the regime wages a bloody crackdown against the year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.
The government has blamed the explosions on "terrorist forces" that it claims are behind the revolt. The opposition has denied any role.
Top US intelligence officials have also pointed to Al Qaeda in Iraq as the likely culprit behind the previous bombings, raising the possibility its fighters are infiltrating across the border to take advantage of the turmoil. Al Qaeda's leader called for Assad's ousting in February.
A suspected Al Qaeda presence creates new obstacles for the US, its Western allies and Arab states trying to figure out a way to help push Assad from power, and may also rally Syrian religious minorities, fearful of Sunni radicalism, to get behind the regime.
The Syrian opposition has denied any link to Al Qaeda and accuses forces loyal to the government of being behind the bombings to tarnish the uprising.
According to SANA, preliminary information indicated two blasts were caused by car bombs that hit the aviation intelligence department and the criminal security department. Shooting broke out soon after the blast and sent residents and others who had gathered in the area fleeing.
A Syrian official also said there were reports of a third blast targeting a military bus at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, but there were no details.