DAMASCUS: A series of explosions killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 100 at a weapons depot in northwestern Syria on Thursday, a monitor said.

`Multiple blasts at a weapons and ammunition warehouse belonging to the Turkistan Islamic Party killed 12 people and wounded more than 100 in Maaret Misrin, in northern Idlib province,` said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Those killed included a woman and a child, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

The TIP is a groupactive in the Idlib region made up of Uighur fighters who joined the Syrian civil war to fight against former president Bashar al-Assad.

Syria`s health ministry had reported four deaths and 116 wounded in the blasts, in a preliminary toll published by the official news agency SANA.

Authorities did not immediately say what may have caused the explosions. Images showed a huge plume of white smoke over the town, where several children were among the injured.

Kurdish demand rejected Syria has rejectedKurdish demands to keep their weapons, a government source said on Thursday, as a new round of talks on the Kurds` integration into the state was set to begin.

The Kurds, who control large swathes of the northand east,arenegotiating with the central government on the integration of their civil and military institutions into the state.

Those include the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is Kurdish-led.

`Talking about refusing to hand over weapons or maintaining an autonomous military force is completelyunacceptable,` the source told the state broadcaster Al-Ikhbariya.

According to the source, such a position `contradicts the principles of unifying the national army and the agreement reached last March between Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi`.

In March, Interim President Ahmed alSharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi signed a deal to incorporate Kurdish institutions into the Syrian state.

While talks have been held regularly since then, progress has stalled.-AFP