Syria was to hold an official funeral on Saturday for dozens killed in a twin suicide bombing in Damascus, while security forces carried out massive search and arrest operations near the capital dpa reported
The funeral was scheduled to be held in Damascus' Omayad Mosque after noon prayers for the victims of the two attacks that rocked the capital on Friday.
The state-run SANA news agency said the attack killed 44 people and injured 166. Medical sources put the death toll at 50.
Damascus has blamed the blast on al-Qaeda militants who might have crossed into the country from neighbouring Lebanon.
But the opposition said the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, may have planned the attack to try to convince Arab and Western countries that Syria is under "terrorist attack."
The country has been gripped by an uprising against al-Assad since mid-March. The crackdown by government forces on pro-democracy demonstrators has so far killed more than 5,000 people, according to UN estimates.
Damascus residents said that checkpoints had been set up across the city on Saturday by security forces who were checking identity cards and searching vehicles.
A wide-scale operation has also been launched in search of those who might have been involved in the bombings.
"Dozens of people were rounded up around Damascus by the security forces and taken to security offices for interrogations," a Syrian activist in the capital told dpa.
Elsewhere in Syria, security continued their crackdown on dissidents in the restive provinces of Idlib and Homs.
"Shelling started in the early hours of the morning on rebellious districts inside the province Homs, after night protests took place," a Syrian activist based in Beirut said.
Initial reports said a man and his son had been killed in the Khalidiyeh neighbourhood, he added.