The border town of Jarablus, which Syrian rebels and Turkish forces recently recaptured from the terror group, is a critical location for supplies, money and fighters coming in and out of ISIS-held areas.
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A series of explosions struck government-held areas of Syria on Monday, state media and a monitor reported.
IS-run Aamaq news agency said the militant group was behind the “simultaneous” blasts that were timed to coincide with Monday’s morning rush hour. A auto bomb at the Arzoneh bridge was followed by a suicide bomber, who targeted a crowd that was gathering.
In the northeastern city of Hasakeh, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed eight people, SANA said.
Syrian state television said the first explosion was a vehicle bomb and the second a suicide belt detonated as rescue workers arrived.
In central Homs city, the target was the Al-Zahraa neighborhood, whose residents mostly belong to the same Alawite sect as Assad and have regularly been targeted by devastating bombings.
The IS group claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying its suicide bombers detonated themselves at military checkpoints in the aforementioned cities. NATO Turkey ally on Sunday said rebels it was backing had gained control of all areas on its border that had been held by the jihadists, depriving the ultra-hardline Islamist group of its main route to the outside world.
At least 35 people died in a double bombing on a bridge leading to this coastal city, a stronghold of President Bashar al Assad and home to a Russian naval base.
A local police chief told state media three men were stopped in a auto by security forces.
Monday’s bombings came in rapid succession during the morning rush hour, targeting the central city of Homs; a highly guarded Damascus suburb; the government stronghold of Tartus, where Russian Federation has a major naval base; and Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria.
Deadly explosions rocked Syria Monday, hours after the United States and Russian Federation discussed an end to the violence during G20 talks.
Another four people died when a auto bomb exploded at an army checkpoint in the government-held al-Zahraa neighborhood in Homs, according to Gov. Talal Barazi. Government forces withdrew in August after street battles with Kurdish forces, which took control of the city, though the state’s police force remained in place.
“The Syrian government calls on the United Nations security Council to immediately condemn the bloody crimes perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups and to assume its responsibility in preserving worldwide peace and security… the Syrian government also calls on Security council to take punitive and deterrent procedures against the countries which support terrorism, particularly Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and France and forcing them to carry out the rules of relevant resolutions No. 2170, 2178, 2199 and 2253”, the letters concluded.
More than 290,000 people have been killed in Syria since its conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions displaced by the fighting.
Successive rounds of worldwide negotiations aimed at find a political solution have failed to bear fruit, though US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are due to resume discussions on stemming the violence Monday.
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Syria expert Thomas Pierret said the attacks were part of a new IS “strategy.to “seduce” rebels by demonstrating IS’s capacity to strike the regime”.
