Syria said it had thwarted a suicide attack on Friday as a series of mass protests were held across the country to condemn two bombings the previous day in Damascus in which at least 55 people died and 372 were wounded, DPA reported.
Security forces said they had killed a potential suicide bomber, who was planning to detonate a bus packed with more than 1,000 kilograms of explosives, state television reported.
He was killed in the northern province of Aleppo, the report said.
The state-run SANA news agency reported that the "suicide bomber" was killed after security forces intercepted a stolen booby-trapped minibus, and that he had planned to blow it up in the densely populated neighbourhood of al-Shaar, in Aleppo.
SANA said four tanks loaded with a large quantity of explosives were found in the minibus.
Meanwhile, opposition activists said tens of thousands of protesters defied gunfire and took to the streets on Friday to condemn the twin blasts in the capital Damascus on Thursday.
According to the Local Coordination Committees, which documents violence in the country, 14 people were killed by security forces Friday.
At least four civilians died from gunshot wounds suffered during a crackdown by troops in the central province of Hama, said the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In the northern city of Aleppo, troops fired at demonstrators in the district of Salaheddine, said the group. A bomb went off in Aleppo's Hannou neighbourhood, wounding three people, it added.
"The regime is killing the people of Syria," chanted protesters in the dissident province of Homs, who demonstrated after noon prayers, according to opposition activists.
Similar protests were held in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, the southern province of Daraa and areas near Damascus.
Suicide bombers Thursday detonated cars packed with explosives near a military intelligence building in Damascus, the Interior Ministry said. It was the deadliest attack since an uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011.
The authorities beefed up security across Damascus on Friday. "Troops are searching every car entering the city and checking the identification of passengers inside the vehicles," said activist Haytham al-Abdullah.
The government has accused al-Qaeda-linked groups of being behind the attacks that have repeatedly targeted Damascus in the past few months.
"We have information that there are between 350-600 al-Qaeda insurgents scattered in Damascus and its outskirts," a Syrian official, who requested anonymity, told dpa.
The opposition has accused the government of orchestrating these attacks, allegedly to deflect the world's attention from its clampdown on dissent.
Opposition rebels on Friday called for an international investigation into the bombings.
"The international community should intervene to save the Syrian people from this brutal regime," said the Free Syrian Army, which represents rebels fighting for al-Assad's ouster.
"The world should send a team of investigators to determine who was behind the blasts that killed innocent people," it said.
Following Thursday's attacks, the United Nations led international calls for the immediate implementation of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.
A key element of that plan was a ceasefire that went into effect on April 12, but which has since been violated on a near-daily basis.
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