Several bomb blasts rocked Jableh and Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast on Monday, leaving almost 150 people dead and at least 200 others wounded, local media reported.
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Minutes after the first bombings in Jableh, a vehicle bomb went off in the bus and taxi station in Tartus, 31 miles farther south, the Observatory said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Syrian TV said the Turkey-backed Ahrar al-Sham were behind the bombings.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has conveyed condolences to Syria’s Bashar Assad over the death of civilians in the terrorist attacks in Latakia.
France’s Foreign Ministry called the Tartous and Jableh bombings “odious” and said violence from all sides must stop if a political transition is to take place.
Shortly afterward, suicide bombers followed by an explosives-laded vehicle tore through a packed bus station and a petrol station in Tartus, minutes apart, TV reports and residents said.
In a fourth bombing, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of Jableh National Hospital’s emergency department, SANA reported.
A string of bombings in Syrian government strongholds killed at least 148 people while two more bombings in Yemen claimed the lives of 41 people on Monday.
WHO official Tarek Jasarevic said the organization was basing its information on local authorities.
A state department spokesman said Russian Federation had “a special responsibility” to rein in Syrian government forces.
Monday’s back-to-back bombings occurred in the cities of Tartus, and Jableh, both government strongholds that also house Russian military bases.
Jableh’s bus station was also targeted, along with the town’s hospital. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said they were “without a doubt the deadliest attacks” on the two cities since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011.
In Tartous, more than 33 people were killed and 47 injured, Sana said.
She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears for her own safety.
A series of rare explosions including suicide.
A one-sentence report by the ISIS-linked Aamaq news agency, which routinely carries the group’s news, claimed responsibility but gave no further details.
Scores were wounded in at least five suicide attacks and two vehicle bombs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, which targeted a packed bus station in Tartus, according to Syrian state TV.
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Government officials have said that at least 80 died in Monday’s devastating assaults, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that 154 had died.
