The Syrian authorities on Thursday arrested a total of 57 wanted people in the northern province of Idlib in what was described as a "qualitative operation," the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Quoting an official source, SANA said that the operation was carried out after storming one of the hideouts of terrorist groups in Kafrouma city in Idlib. It added that the men were captured after clashing with the security forces.

Weapons, ammunition and modern communication devices were seized from them, SANA reported.

In a related development, specialized forces clashed with some armed terrorist members who were aboard a pickup and were attempting to attack a law-enforcement agents' checkpoint in Kanwafra city in Jabal al-Zawya in northern Syria, SANA said, adding that the clashes left 3 gunmen dead and a policeman wounded.

In the meantime, an official source in Maaret al-Numan city in Idlib denied on Thursday what al-Arabiya TV channel had earlier broadcasted about armed attacks against security members and the ruling al-Baath Party headquarters in and outside the city.

The source told SANA that such reports were "baseless" and were "in the framework of the fierce misleading media campaign launched by some TV channels to falsify fact."

Meanwhile, in Damascus, SANA reported that an armed terrorist group, which pretended to be security agents, ransacked a number of houses in and around the capital before all of its members were captured in the suburban areas. The Syrian TV broadcasted later the gangsters' confessions.

Syria has been experiencing unrest for about eight months. While foreign reports said that around 3,500 Syrians have been killed since the anti-government protests erupted in March, the Syrian government said that hundreds of security and army personnel were killed by armed groups backed by foreign conspiracies with the aim of toppling the government of President Bashar al-Assad.