At least 40 people have been killed and dozens wounded in five explosions across mostly government-controlled and Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria, according to state media reports.
Monday morning’s blasts hit the coastal city of Tartous, the central city of Homs, the suburbs of the capital Damascus as well as the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish militias but where the government maintains a presence.
It was not immediately clear if there was a link between the reported blasts.
SANA, Asad regime’s state media, said at least 11 people were killed and 45 injured in a double bomb attack just outside Tartous, in the coastal province of the same name, which is a base of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
“Two terrorist blasts on Arzuna bridge, the first a car bomb and the second a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded,” Syrian state television said.
The blasts hit during Tartous’s Summer Festival. Its beaches recently featured in a government tourism video circulated on social media inviting people to visit Syria’s Mediterranean coastline.
And state media also reported a car bomb at the entrance to the Al-Zahra neighbourhood in Homs, which is controlled by the government.
It said that the bombing targeted a chick point for Assad regime’s military and killed at least two people were killed and four wounded in the bombing, which is the latest in a series of attacks targeting Al-Zahra, where most residents are Alawite, the sect to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
West of Damascus, there was an explosion at the entrance to the town of al Saboura, along a road which leads onto the Beirut-Damascus highway, killing one person and injuring three, according to a police commander quoted on state television.
A local police chief told state media three men were stopped in a car by security forces.
“The driver was killed and the two others got out of the car and detonated their suicide belts, killing one person,” he said.
The Observatory said three people died in the Saboura blast.
State media also reported five people killed in Hasaka, in the northeast of the country.
The blast in Hasaka was claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based monitor, said the blast hit a checkpoint belonging to the Kurdish Asayesh security forces.
“A motorbike also exploded in the center of the northeastern city of Hasaka, killing five people including three members of the YPG-affiliated security force known as the Asayish,” said the Observatory.
The Observatory said also that a percussion bomb also went off in the province’s city of Qamishli city. Amaq, a news agency affiliated to Islamic State, said seven Kurdish security forces were killed an injured there.
