Blasts heard at arms depot in western Syria

Several blasts were heard overnight Thursday-Friday at an arms depot in the coastal city of Latakia, in northern Syria, killing several regime troops, Syrian media sources reported late Friday.

“Explosions around dawn [today] rocked an area… in the east of Latakia apparently as a result of blasts in ammunition depots near a brigade of regime force,” AFP quoted the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a number of activists on the ground, as saying.

The organization’s director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said there were reports of deaths and injuries in the blasts, Al Jazeera reported.

Hezbollah’ s Al-Manar TV said the blasts were caused by missile or rocket fire at the arms depot.

It was unclear who was responsible though some reports suggested that Syrian opposition groups were behind the blasts.

Last month, an explosion in the same area left six people lightly injured on Wednesday.

Syrian state TV said a “technical error” caused the explosion at a base used by the army corps of engineers. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it did not know the cause of the explosion in what it described as an ammunition warehouse.