Three army officers were killed and some soldiers were kidnapped Monday when armed groups attacked a law-enforcement force's checkpoint in Syria's northern province of Idlib, state-run SANA news agency reported.

The attack took place in the Jabal al-Zawiyah region of Idlib, said SANA, adding that a number of civilians were injured during the attack.

In another assault Monday, scores of "terrorists" stormed houses in Idlib's Ma'arat Nouman area, stealing their contents and causing an unclear number of casualties.

Meanwhile, SANA said another armed group attacked the law- enforcement forces inside the municipality building of Idlib. A number of the forces' members were wounded, while some of the attackers were killed.

In central Homs province, armed groups from the restive Baba Amro neighborhood fired mortar shells at a number of neighborhoods in the provincial capital city Homs, said SANA.

Also in Homs, an "armed terrorist group" blasted an oil pipeline Monday, just 12 hours after an unidentified armed group detonated at midnight a gas pipeline near Talbiseh town in Homs, causing the leakage of quantities of gas.

Homs, Syria's third largest city and home to about 800,000 people, has witnessed severe clashes between troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and militia groups allegedly comprising of army defectors.

In the Syrian capital Damascus' suburb of Zabadani, a number of public and private buildings were also attacked by armed groups Monday, SANA said, adding that gunmen have prevented residents from going to work, while the authorities are chasing and trying to arrest the "terrorists."

Riad Asaad, commander of the so-called Free Syrian Army, an anti-government armed militia, has pledged to escalate attacks against the government forces after the international community failed to adopt a resolution on the Syrian crisis in the United Nations Security Council.

The Syrian government said more than 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed during the months-long unrest, while the United Nations put the death toll in the country at more than 5,400.