More than 120 people were killed yesterday in a wave of bombings claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group in northwestern Syria, the deadliest attacks yet in the regime’s coastal heartland.
Seven near-simultaneous explosions targeted bus stations, hospitals and other civilian sites in the seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus, which until now had been relatively insulated from Syria’s five-year civil war.
The unprecedented attacks on strongholds of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime came as IS faces increasing pressure in both Syria and Iraq, where Baghdad’s forces on yesterday launched a major offensive to retake the militant-held city of Fallujah, Iraq.
Photo: AFP
Seventy-three people were killed in Jableh and another 48 in Tartus, Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said they were “without a doubt the deadliest attacks” on the two cities since the start of the war.
IS claimed the blasts via its Amaq news agency, saying its fighters had attacked “Alawite gatherings” in Tartus and Jableh, referring to the minority sect from which the al-Assad clan hails.
“I’m shocked, this is the first time I hear sounds like this,” said Mohsen Zayyoud, a 22-year-old university student in Jableh.
“I thought the war was over and that I could walk safely. But I was surprised to see that we’re still in the heart of the battle,” he said.
Jableh is in Latakia Province, while Tartus is the regional capital of the adjacent governorate of the same name.
The seaside cities have remained relatively secure even as Syria’s war has raged in Latakia Province’s rural northeast and throughout the country.
Syrian state media also reported the attacks, but reported a total of 78 dead, including 45 in Jableh and 33 in Tartus.
The attacks began at 9am with three explosions at a busy bus station in Tartus, where regime ally Russia has long maintained a naval facility.
The Observatory said one car bomb detonated first, and as people began to flock to the site, two suicide bombers detonated explosive belts.
A police source in the city confirmed a car bomb had hit the entrance to the station and two suicide bombers attacked inside.
In other developments in the Middle East, a pair of suicide bombings carried out by Islamic State militants yesterday killed at least 45 people in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, security officials said.
They said the bombings targeted men seeking to join the army.
One suicide car bomber hit a line outside an army recruitment center, killing at least 20.
A second bomber on foot detonated his explosive vest among a group of recruits waiting outside the home of an army commander, killing at least 25 people.
Scores of others were wounded, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
A local affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for both attacks in a statement posted on social media.
Additional reporting by AP
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