DAMASCUS, Dec. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Syrian anti-terrorism forces have discovered a bomb-making factory in the northern city of Aleppo, the official SANA news agency reported on Wednesday.
 
    The forces found all kinds of materials and tools that related to manufacture of explosives in the plant, as well as manuals used for training on how to carry out terror attacks against public institutions, government buildings and security facilities, SANA said.

    SANA did not confirm the owner of the factory but media reports said it belongs to a "terrorist group" which clashed with Syrian security forces three days ago.

    On Sunday, security forces exchanged fire with the group, which has not been named, in Aleppo, 355 km north of Damascus, during which two militants, a security officer and two civilians were wounded.

    The report said the two wounded militants captured by security forces have confessed that they had planned to take actions against government institutions and officials in the country.

    They said they have attempted to rob banks and shops in order to finance their acts, saying they have relations with terror groups in neighboring countries.

    The report also said Syrian security forces have found sever alarms caches in the province of Aleppo and Damascus suburbs, where a lot of weapons including revolvers, submachine guns, detonators, grenades and belts used for suicide bombings were discovered, some of which were smuggled from Lebanon.

    Equipment for communications, identity cards and propaganda leaflets were also found in the caches, it added.

    In a separate clash in Aleppo last week, another two militants were killed and a third wounded, which was not made public then for the purpose of the investigation, according to SANA.

    Syrian security forces have clashed several times with militants and arrested dozens of them in recent months amid an intensified security campaign in the country.

    In October, Syrian security forces arrested a group of radical Islamist militants who were believed to attempt to launch attacks in the country.

    SANA reported in early September that security forces killed five members of an Islamist militant group during a gunbattle in the northwest of the country and discovered a cache of weapons.

    In early July, Syria arrested two militants in a clash in the Qasioun hills on the edge of Damascus. SANA said some members of the terror group had worked as bodyguards for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

    The United States has accused Damascus of not doing enough to stop anti-US militants from crossing into Iraq. Syria insists that it do its best to control the 600 km-long desert border with Iraq. Enditem