Explosions rock military site south of Aleppo

A series of explosions at a military site near the city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, wounded four people early Monday, the government announced. It marks the fourth such episode involving explosions in less than a month in a country still emerging from a long civil war that began in 2011.

State television reported a powerful blast in the al-Eis area, south of Aleppo, followed by a series of further explosions that hindered "access for ambulances and rescue teams to the site," according to Faisal Mohammad Ali, head of local civil defense operations, quoted by the state-run channel Al-Ikhbariya.

Syrian state news agency SANA later reported that the explosions had occurred at an ammunition depot. One civilian was injured by shrapnel, while two others suffered temporary breathing difficulties, and a fourth person was injured in a traffic accident while trying to flee the area. 

Civil defense teams evacuated the injured along with three families living near the blast site and remained on high alert given the continuing explosions.

The cause of the explosions was not immediately known. This is the latest in a string of unexplained blasts to hit Syria in recent weeks: an explosion killed 11 people at a military site in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on Friday, and earlier this month, a blast at a Ministry of Defense weapons depot in the northwestern Idlib province killed 14 people and injured 11.

With large quantities of weapons, ammunition and unexploded ordnance still scattered across the country following more than a decade of conflict, Syria's authorities continue to warn residents of the ongoing danger posed by leftover munitions, even as questions persist over whether these repeated explosions are accidents or something more deliberate.