Blast targets Syrian regime forces

BEIRUT -- An explosion targeting Syrian regime forces killed at least three people in the north yesterday -- and possibly up to 18 -- amid rising violence ahead of a visit by the new UN-Arab League envoy who is trying to end the country's civil war.

Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to halt the bloodshed in Syria, but the new international envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, will be in Syria today for talks with Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, according to ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Brahimi also will meet with President Bashar Assad during the trip to Damascus.

There were conflicting accounts about yesterday's blast and the number of casualties. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 18 security agents were killed by a car bomb. It said dozens of rebels attacked the post after the blast in the Idlib province town of Saraqeb.

But a government official told The Associated Press that a suicide attacker blew himself up in Saraqeb, killing two policemen and a civilian.

Elsewhere, activists reported heavy fighting between government troops and rebels in Aleppo, much of it near the government-held Aleppo International Airport

Activists say that more than 23,000 people have been killed since the crisis began in March last year. The violence has forced nearly 300,000 Syrians to flee the country, and the vast majority of them have sought refuge in neighboring Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. -- AP