Three killed as car bomb hits Aleppo BEIRUT — A car bomb hit Syria's second city Aleppo Sunday, a day after blasts killed 27 in Damascus, and security forces arrested and beat activists at a rare anti-government protest in the center of the capital. The British-based opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least three people had been killed and 25 wounded by the explosion close to a state security office in Aleppo. State news channel Syria TV said the attack had been between two residential buildings in the Al-Suleimaniya district, behind a post office building. It showed building fronts blasted open, masonry littering the street and a blood-spattered street corner. Activists in Aleppo from the opposition's local Revolutionary Council said the government was behind the attack. “These explosions are always done by the regime to discourage people from joining the revolution ... they want to make our uprising seem like a terrorist operation to the rest of the world, but it is not,” said the activist, who called himself Marwan and spoke to Reuters by telephone. The opposition reported heavy raids by security forces and fighting with rebels in northern and southern Syrian provinces and suburbs of Damascus. n the capital, as crowds gathered for memorials to victims of Saturday's car bombs, security forces broke up an opposition march of more than 200 people when protesters began shouting “the people want to topple the regime”. The phrase has echoed through the wave of Arab uprisings that began last year and has toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
