BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 24 people were killed, most of them government forces, in three coordinated car bombs in Syria's Idlib province, a monitoring group said on Wednesday, a day after explosions killed more than 87 people in Aleppo University.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of sources in Syria, said one of the car bombs targeted government vehicles near a building used by one of President Bashar al-Assad's domestic security agencies.

A second hit a government security office and the third a checkpoint on a road leading to Idlib city. All exploded within a few minutes of each other, the Observatory said.

State news agency SANA said 22 people were killed in Idlib city when two car bombs exploded and said two other bombs were defused on a main road leading to Idlib.

Reuters cannot independently verify such reports due to severe government restrictions on reporting.

Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, said the death toll was expected to rise due to the number of wounded who were in critical condition.

Stuck in a military stalemate, rebels have used bomb attacks to target government forces, who have far superior firepower including war planes and ballistic missiles.

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alison Williams)