The BBC's Jim Muir: "State TV has been carrying some extremely explicit and lurid footage"
At least 25 people have been killed by explosions outside security forces compounds in Syria's second city of Aleppo, state media report.
State television said the death toll included both civilians and members of the security forces and blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the blasts.A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army told the BBC it was behind them.
Residents of the city of Homs meanwhile say tanks are massed outside several opposition-held districts.
Overnight, tanks entered the eastern district of Inshaat, next to the protest centre of Baba Amr, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Continue reading the main story 
There are few certainties or even probabilities in the complex and bloody crisis in which Syria is now mired.
It is uncharted terrain for all - the regime itself, its population, its fellow Arab states, non-Arab neighbours Turkey and Israel, and the concerned outside world. Huge issues are at stake in the deepening struggle.
The collapse of the regime and a descent into chaos, in a country where sectarian and ethnic fault lines converge, would have huge repercussions in the wider region.
But one thing that seems relatively safe to predict is that the regime's current drive to crush armed rebels will continue until it has secured control of areas which had slipped out of its grasp in recent months.
Analysis
It is uncharted terrain for all - the regime itself, its population, its fellow Arab states, non-Arab neighbours Turkey and Israel, and the concerned outside world. Huge issues are at stake in the deepening struggle.
The collapse of the regime and a descent into chaos, in a country where sectarian and ethnic fault lines converge, would have huge repercussions in the wider region.
But one thing that seems relatively safe to predict is that the regime's current drive to crush armed rebels will continue until it has secured control of areas which had slipped out of its grasp in recent months.
There was also sporadic shelling throughout the city during the morning.
Activists say the intense bombardment of many parts of Homs by security forces since Saturday has left more than 400 people dead. US President Barack Obama has condemned the "outrageous bloodshed".The opposition has called for nationwide protests on Friday to denounce Russia's veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling on President Bashar al-Assad's government to stop killing its own people.
But Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the opposition "bore full responsibility" because it had refused to begin talks with the government and accused Western powers of being "accomplices".
'Suspicious activity' Syrian state TV broadcast images showing at least five corpses and mangled body parts after what it said were two bombings outside a Military Intelligence compound and a riot police base in Aleppo on Friday.
A weeping TV reporter said the bomb targeting intelligence building went off near a park, where people had gathered for breakfast and children had been playing.
Some children were killed in the blast, he said, holding up a roller-blade.
Aleppo has seen only minor protests and relatively little violence until now Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Col Arif al-Hamoud Free Syrian ArmyWhat happened in Aleppo was an military attack against Military Intelligence, with shells, rockets and bombs”
"Civilians and members of the military were martyred and wounded in the terrorist explosions that targeted Aleppo,'' the channel reported.
The channel showed similar footage from the site of the second explosion, which the reporter said was the result of a suicide car bombing.The blast left a crater several metres wide in the road, blew a lorry onto its side, and hurled chunks of concrete over a wide area.
Emergency workers were shown holding up body parts - including hands, feet and a torso - which they placed in black bin bags.
State TV later quoted the health ministry as saying that 25 people had been killed and 175 wounded as a result of the attacks.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that there had been two explosions, after earlier reporting that residents had told the group that there had been three.
Opposition activists initially said the government was responsible, accusing it of trying to discredit the uprising. Suspicious activity by security personnel had been noticed shortly before the blasts, they added.
However, Col Arif al-Hamoud of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), a group of army defectors, later told BBC Arabic that it was behind the explosions in Aleppo.
The Free Syrian Army has been fighting security forces in the city of Homs "What happened in Aleppo was an military attack against Military Intelligence, with shells, rockets and bombs. A number of walls collapsed and there were some people killed from the military base. This was not a car bomb but a military operation."
The deputy head of the FSA, Col Malik al-Kurdi, confirmed the claim.
Aleppo, a mercantile city, has seen only minor protests and relatively little violence since the uprising against President al-Assad erupted in March, which human rights groups say has left more than 7,000 civilians dead.
On 6 January, 26 people were killed in what officials said was a suicide bombing in Damascus. Two weeks earlier, 44 reportedly died in twin suicide bomb attacks targeting security compounds in the capital.
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