Reuters reported that the Tartous Summer Festival was underway and that the the coastal town was recently promoted in a government campaign on social media, which invited people to visit the beaches in the region.
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There was no claim of responsibility for the other explosions, which also wounded over 50 people.
At least four explosions hit government-held parts of Syria on Monday (Sept 5), in the cities of Tartous and Homs and along a road outside Damascus, state media and a monitor said.
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for 90 minutes for talks centred largely on efforts to reduce violence; allow humanitarian aid; and to target Islamist groups.
At least 30 of the victims were reported to have been killed in a double bombing in Tartus, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad.
Two violent explosions hit the Arzouna bridge area at the entrance to the northwestern coastal city of Tartous, the Observatory and state news agency SANA said.
The first was a auto bomb and the second was reportedly carried out by suicide bomber who detonated an explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded. The city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, is largely under government control, with only one neighborhood still held by rebels.
In the government-held city of Homs in central Syria, at least four people were killed and 10 injured in a vehicle bomb at the entrance to Al-Zahraa neighborhood, which has always been subjected to terrorist attacks.
Five more died in an attack carried out by an explosives-packed motorcycle in the northeastern city of Hasakah.
Islamic State’s media outlet Amaq said the attacks were suicide operations targeting the Syrian government and a Kurdish security force. Washington has urged Kurdish forces to honor a pledge to withdraw east of the Euphrates river to allay Turkish fears of a contiguous semi-autonomous Kurdish zone in Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also at the G20, said he had urged world powers to create a “safe zone” in Syria, with a “no-fly” element, that would help control the flow of migrants. Washington backs the uprising against Assad, but is working with the Syrian leader’s key ally Moscow on a deal to stem the bloodshed.
“We have had some productive conversations about what a real cessation of hostilities would look like, that would allow us both, the United States and Russian Federation, to focus our attention on common enemies, like ISIL and Nusra”, Obama said, referring to Islamic State and the hardline Nusra Front.
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“The attacks seem to have taken place at the same time, which leaves many to wonder whether this was a coordinated attack”, said Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gazientep on the Turkish side of the border with Syria.
