Twin car bombs struck intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital on Saturday, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 100, according to state media. 
 
 In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian security officers investigate a damaged building of the air intelligence forces, which was attacked by one of two explosions, in... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian army soldiers and security officers inspect the blast area in front of a damaged building of the air intelligence forces, which was... (Associated Press) 
 
 State TV, citing the health minister, said the death toll could rise. Gruesome images of the scene were aired, with mangled and charred corpses, bloodstained 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 hear screaming in the street." 
 
 The blasts were the latest in a string of mysterious, large-scale attacks targeting the Syrian regime's military and security installations. 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 the "terrorists" that it claims are behind the revolt. The opposition has denied any role, saying they believe forces loyal to the government are behind the bombings to tarnish the uprising. 
 
 But top U.S. intelligence officials also have pointed to al-Qaida 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-Qaida's leader called for Assad's ouster in February. 
 
 A suspected al-Qaida presence creates new obstacles for the U.S., 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. 
 
 Bassma Kodmani, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, said she doubted armed groups trying to bring Assad down by force, such as the rebel Free Syrian Army, have the capacity to carry out such attacks on security institutions in the capital. 
 
 "I don't think any of the opposition forces or the free Syrian army has the capacity to do such an operation to target these buildings because they are fortresses," she said by telephone. "They are very well guarded. There is no way anyone can penetrate them without having strong support and complicity from inside the security apparatus." 
 
 According to SANA, preliminary information indicated two blasts were caused by car bombs that hit the aviation intelligence department and the criminal security department at 7:30 a.m local time. Shooting broke out soon after the blast and sent residents and others who had gathered in the area fleeing, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said. 
 
 A Syrian official also said there were reports of a third blast Saturday targeting a military bus at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, but there were no details. He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly. 
 
 The Syrian government denies there is a popular will behind the uprising, saying foreign extremists and gangs are trying to destroy the country. But his opponents deny that and say an increasingly active rebel force has been driven to take up arms because the government used tanks, snipers and machine guns to crush peaceful protests. 
 
 The U.N. estimates that more that 8,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began last March. 
 
 The last major suicide bombing in Syria happened on Feb. 10, when twin blasts struck security compounds in the government stronghold of Aleppo in northern Syria, killing 28 people. Damascus, another Assad stronghold, has seen three suicide previous bombings since December. 
 
 In recent weeks, Syrian forces have waged a series of heavy offensives against the main strongholds of the opposition _ Homs in central Syria, Idlib in the north and Daraa in the south. 
 
 The bloodshed fuels the country's sectarian tensions. The military's top leadership is stacked heavily with members of the minority Alawite sect, to which Assad and the ruling elite belong. 
 
 Sunnis are the majority in the country of 22 million and make up the backbone of the opposition. 
 
 Diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis have so far brought no result. But U.N. envoy Kofi Annan told the Security Council in a briefing Friday that he would return to Damascus even though his recent talks with Assad saw no progress in attempts to cobble together peace negotiations between the two sides. 
 
 After the confidential briefing via videolink, Annan told reporters in Geneva that he urged the council "to speak with one voice as we try to resolve the crisis in Syria." Russia and China have blocked U.N. action against Assad's regime. 
 
 "The first objective is for all of us to end the violence and human rights abuses and the killings and get unimpeded access for humanitarian access to the needy, and of course the all-important issue of political process that will lead to a democratic Syria," Annan said. 
 
 Both Assad and much of the opposition spurned Annan's appeal for talks. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed to this story from Damascus, Syria. ||||| At least 27 people have been killed and 97 others wounded in a pair of explosions in Damascus, the Syrian health minister has said. 
 
 State television blamed "terrorists" for the Saturday morning explosions and reported that vehicles packed with explosives had been used. The blasts targeted buildings belonging to a customs office and air force intelligence. 
 
 Most of the casualties were civilians, state television said. The channel broadcast interviews with Syrians who blamed the attack on the United States and Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who they said had sent terrorists. 
 
 The attacks come two days after the one-year anniversary of the start of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 
 
 "I woke up to two massive explosions around 7:30 this morning - one was on Baghdad street less than a mile away from my home," a witness in Damascus told Al Jazeera. "Relatives closer to the explosion told me their windows were blown out and doors destroyed from the blast." 
 
 Bassma Kodmani, a Paris-based member of the opposition Syrian National Council, said she doubted the armed groups trying to bring Assad down by force have the capacity to carry out such attacks on security institutions in the capital. 
 
 "I don't think any of the opposition forces or the Free Syrian Army has the capacity to do such an operation to target these buildings because they are fortresses,'' she said. "They are very well guarded. There is no way anyone can penetrate them without having strong support and complicity from inside the security apparatus." 
 
 State-run news agency SANA said a third blast went off near a military bus at the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus later in the day, killing the two suicide bombers. 
 
 No claim of responsibility 
 
 It was not the first time bombers have struck in Damascus, the heart of Assad's power base. There were three alleged suicide bombings in the capital between December and January, which the government blamed on al-Qaeda. 
 
 "A few weeks ago, we saw security buildings also come under attack [in Aleppo] and the government has been blaming what they are calling 'terrorist groups'," said Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut. 
 
 She said no one had claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks but that the opposition has in the past blamed the government for "orchestrating" them to bolster its case against alleged terrorists. 
 
 "But we also have to remember that US officials have hinted in the past that they believe that al-Qaeda could be involved, could be taking advantage of the security vacuum in that country," Khodr said. 
 
 The spectre of al-Qaeda could make Syria's minority populations more nervous about the Sunni-led uprising against Assad, whose government has sought to rally Alawite, Christian and Shia communities to its side. 
 
 One of Saturday's blasts happened in al-Qassaa, a predominantly Christian area. 
 
 International condemnation 
 
 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bomb blasts and called for an immediate end to the violence. 
 
 "Mr Ban extended his sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Syria," a statement from the secretary-general's office said. 
 
 Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said: "France condemns all acts of terrorism, which cannot be justified under any circumstances." 
 
 France has been at the forefront of calls for Assad to quit. 
 
 Mohammed Kamel Amr, Egypt's foreign minister, affirmed Cairo's "fixed position against terrorism in any form, regardless of the reasons behind it". 
 
 Meanwhile, the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an opposition activist network, said 22 people were killed across the country on Saturday, including eight in the northwestern city of al-Raqqa where security forces reportedly opened fire on a funeral march. 
 
 Al-Raqqa saw a rare mass rally against Assad on Friday and activists said several people were killed by gunfire. 
 
 Clashes between the military and army defectors were also reported in the city on Saturday. The LCC said security forces had besieged the hospital that admitted most of the injured.
– Two car bombs rocked Damascus this morning around 7:30 local time, killing civilians and security forces, report al-Jazeera and AP. State media reports 27 dead and more than 100 injured. One bomb hit the criminal security department and the other the aviation intelligence department. The usual blame game unfolded: The government said the explosions were the work of terrorists, but rebel groups said the bombs were the work of the government, done to discredit the opposition. The explosions followed renewed fighting around the capital yesterday, as violence returned to the Damascus suburbs for the first time since early February, according to the AP. The Syrian government had been reporting it was on the verge of crushing the rebels, but the new fighting shows its struggles to conduct offensives in more than one area at a time. "Every time the regime controls a specific area we witness clashes in new regions," said one activist. Syria's foreign minister, meanwhile, sent a letter to the UN Security Council yesterday saying the crackdown would continue.