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© Sana/EPACars burn at the scene of two blasts that hit the Syrian capital Damascus on 10 May 2012.
Video posted online says twin car bombings that killed 55 people in Syrian capital were revenge for Assad regime's aggression

An obscure Islamist group, the al-Nusra Front, has posted a video online claiming responsibility for two bomb attacks that killed 55 people in Syria's capital, Damascus, earlier this week.

The video, narrated by a man whose voice was disguised, showed no images of militants making or setting up the bomb and did not claim the attacks as suicide bombings.

Footage showing black smoke rising over Damascus from the day of the blast was shown at the end of the statement, labelled as coming from the 'Camera of the Mujahideen [holy warriors]'.

The video emerged amid reports by activists of renewed fighting between rebels and the army in northern Syria on Saturday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fighting in Idlib province, on Syria's northern border with Turkey - a hotspot of the 14-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

"Violent clashes are raging between Syrian regime forces and armed military defectors ... The sounds of strong explosions were heard followed by security forces using heavy and medium machinegun fire," the British-based Observatory said.

Activists and the rebel Free Syrian Army say they had nothing to do with the bombings in Damascus and that the blasts were orchestrated by state forces to hurt the opposition's image.

The video said the blasts were in response to security force strikes on rebellious towns that have shared in the fight against Assad.

"Al-Nusra Front, God strengthen it, undertook a military operation in Damascus against the dens of the regime to target the Palestine and Dawriyat [security] branches. This is due to the regime's continued strikes on residential neighbourhoods in the Damascus suburbs, Idlib, Hama, Deraa and other areas," said a man's voice on the video, reading from text shown on screen.

"We tell the regime: stop your massacres of Sunni people or you will bear the sins of the Alawites. What is coming will be more disastrous. We ask Sunnis to avoid any security force branches or other dens of the regime."

Syria's uprising against four decades of Assad family rule was fuelled by its Sunni Muslim majority, many of whom are resentful of a political and military elite dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shia Islam.

The turmoil in Syria has sparked sectarian tensions in parts of the country. The Syrian government points to the bombings as proof it is confronting foreign-backed militants, which it says have killed more than 2,600 security personnel.

The al-Nusra Front has previously claimed responsibility for other bombings in Damascus and Aleppo. Its latest video was not posted on commonly used Islamist sites, where most al-Qaida statements and the group's previous announcements have appeared.